Shloka 12
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 40 — Vidura’s Ethical Counsel and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Fatalistic Turn
विषहेरन् भयामर्षो क्षुत्पिपासे मदोद्धवौ । अरतिकश्लैव तन्द्री च कामक्रोधौ क्षयोदयौ
viṣaherann bhayāmarṣo kṣutpipāse madoddhavau | aratikaś caiva tandrī ca kāmakrodhau kṣayodayau ||
Vaiśampāyana said: They endured fear and resentment; hunger and thirst; the upheavals born of intoxication; also discontent and lethargy; and the twin forces of desire and anger—now waning, now rising.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical discipline of endurance and self-mastery: fear, resentment, hunger, thirst, lethargy, discontent, desire, and anger fluctuate (rise and fall), and one’s steadiness in dharma is tested by bearing them without being driven by them.
In the Udyoga Parva’s build-up to war, Vaiśampāyana describes the pressures people undergo—physical hardships and mental agitations—and notes how passions like desire and anger alternately intensify and subside amid the tense preparations and negotiations.