Shloka 9
अध्याय 24 — संजयस्य शमोपदेशः
Sanjaya’s Counsel Toward Conciliation
ते चेत् कुरूननुशिष्याथ पार्था निर्णीय सर्वान् द्विषतो निगृहा | सम॑ वस्तज्जीवितं मृत्युना स्याद् यज्जीवध्वं ज्ञातिवधे न साधु,कुन्तीकुमारो! यदि आपलोग समस्त कौरवोंको निश्चित रूपसे अपना शत्रु मानकर उन्हें दण्ड देंगे, कैद करेंगे अथवा उनका वध कर डालेंगे तो उस दशामें आपका जो जीवन होगा, वह आपके द्वारा कुट॒म्बीजनोंका वध होनेके कारण अच्छा नहीं समझा जायगा। वह निन्दित जीवन तो मृत्युके समान ही होगा
te cet kurūn anuśiṣyātha pārthā nirṇīya sarvān dviṣato nigṛhya | samaṁ vastaj jīvitaṁ mṛtyunā syād yaj jīvadhvaṁ jñātivadhe na sādhu ||
Sañjaya said: “If you, O sons of Pṛthā, after judging all the Kurus to be your enemies, proceed to chastise them—restraining, imprisoning, or even slaying them—then the life that remains to you thereafter would be no better than death. For to live on after the killing of one’s own kinsmen is not regarded as good; it is a blameworthy life, ethically tainted by the destruction of family.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even when conflict seems justified, the moral cost of harming one’s own kin is grave; a life lived after kinslaying is portrayed as ethically diminished—‘equal to death’—and therefore not truly commendable.
Sañjaya voices a warning to the Pāṇḍavas: if they decisively treat the Kurus as enemies and punish or kill them, the aftermath will leave them with a condemned, joyless existence because it would be stained by the killing of relatives.