Shloka 64
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 34 — Vidura’s Counsel on Deliberation, Speech-Discipline, and Dharmic Kingship
असूयको दन्दशूको निष्ठछरो वैरकूच्छठ: । स कृच्छूं महदाप्रोति न चिरात् पापमाचरन्,गुणोंमें दोष देखनेवाला, मर्मपर आघात करने-वाला, निर्दयी, शत्रुता करनेवाला और शठ मनुष्य पापका आचरण करता हुआ शीघ्र ही महान् कष्टको प्राप्त होता है
asūyako dandaśūko niṣṭhuro vairakūcchaṭhaḥ | sa kṛcchraṃ mahad āpnoti na cirāt pāpam ācaran ||
Vidura says: A person who is envious, who strikes with biting words, who is hard-hearted, who nurses hostility, and who is deceitful—such a man, persisting in sinful conduct, quickly falls into great distress. The teaching warns that fault-finding and cruelty are not merely social vices; they ripen into suffering for the doer and corrode the path of dharma.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Envy, hostile intent, deceit, and cruel speech are self-destructive: when one persists in such pāpa (wrongdoing), suffering (kṛcchra) arises quickly. The verse frames ethical speech and inner disposition as central to dharma.
In Udyoga Parva, Vidura delivers moral counsel (Vidura-nīti) amid the rising tension before the Kurukṣetra war. Here he characterizes the type of person whose conduct inevitably leads to near-term misery, warning against fault-finding and malicious behavior.