Shloka 22
Udyoga Parva, Adhyaya 31 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Instructions to Sañjaya
Peace Appeal and Five-Village Proposal
अकालिकं कुरवो नाभविष्यन् पापेन चेत् पापमजातशत्रु: । इच्छेज्जातु त्वयि पापं विसृज्य निन्दा चेयं तव लोके5भविष्यत्
akālikaṃ kuravo nābhaviṣyan pāpena cet pāpam ajātaśatruḥ | icchej jātu tvayi pāpaṃ visṛjya nindā ceyaṃ tava loke 'bhaviṣyat, rājan |
Sañjaya said: “O King, if Ajātaśatru (Yudhiṣṭhira) were ever to abandon restraint and, fixing the blame upon you, choose to answer sin with sin, then the Kurus would be destroyed before their time; and in the world it would be your name alone that would become the object of blame and condemnation.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that answering wrongdoing with wrongdoing (pāpam pāpena) accelerates ruin and shifts moral blame onto the instigator; true strength lies in restraint, because public censure (nindā) follows the one seen as responsible for provoking adharma.
Sañjaya addresses King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, cautioning that if Yudhiṣṭhira—normally restrained and called Ajātaśatru—were to cast off his scruples and retaliate by blaming the king and committing counter-wrong, the Kuru house would be destroyed prematurely and Dhṛtarāṣṭra would be condemned by the world.