Shloka 28
Udyoga Parva, Adhyaya 31 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Instructions to Sañjaya
Peace Appeal and Five-Village Proposal
स त्वां गहें भारतानां विरोधा- दन्तो नूनं भवितायं प्रजानाम् । नो चेदिदं तव कर्मापराधात् कुरून् दहेत् कृष्णवर्त्मेव कक्षम्
sa tvāṃ garhe bhāratānāṃ virodhād anto nūnaṃ bhavitāyaṃ prajānām | no ced idaṃ tava karmāparādhāt kurūn dahet kṛṣṇavartmeva kakṣam ||
Sañjaya said: “I censure you for fomenting discord among the Bhāratas, for from this hostility the destruction of the people will surely come. And if you do not act as I urge, then through the fault of your deeds Arjuna will burn the Kurus—just as fire, moving along its darkened track, consumes a thicket of dry grass.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Stoking factional hostility within a lineage is an ethical failure with public consequences: the ruler’s or leader’s wrongful action (karmāparādha) can precipitate widespread ruin, and violence—once unleashed—spreads like fire through dry brush.
Sañjaya delivers a sharp warning: by sustaining the Kuru–Pāṇḍava conflict, the addressee is driving the realm toward catastrophe. He predicts that if corrective action is not taken, Arjuna will destroy the Kurus, compared to fire consuming a thicket.