Shloka 30
Ulūka’s Provocation and Keśava’s Counter-Message (उलूकदूत्ये केशवप्रत्युत्तरम्)
तथेति त॑ प्रतिज्ञाय मूषिका भरतर्षभ । वृद्धबालमथो सर्व मार्जाराय न्यवेदयन्,“भरतश्रेष्ठ! “बहुत अच्छा” कहकर चूहोंने बिलावकी आज्ञाका पालन करनेके लिये हामी भर ली और वृद्ध तथा बालकोंसहित अपना सारा परिवार उस बिलावको सौंप दिया
tatheti taṁ pratijñāya mūṣikā bharatarṣabha | vṛddhabālam atho sarvaṁ mārjārāya nyavedayan ||
Sañjaya said: “So be it,” the mice agreed, O bull among the Bhāratas. Having thus assented, they handed over their entire community—elders and children alike—to the cat. The episode shows how uncritical obedience and misplaced trust in a predatory power can carry a whole society, including its most vulnerable, into ruin.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that agreeing too readily to a powerful adversary’s terms—without discernment—can endanger an entire community. Ethical prudence (nīti) requires testing intentions, especially when the vulnerable (elders and children) will bear the cost of a wrong decision.
The mice respond “tathā” (“so be it”) and formally agree. Then they entrust their whole group, including elders and children, to the cat—an act that highlights their surrender to a natural predator and sets up the moral point about deception and imprudent submission.