Shloka 38
Sanatsujāta–Dhṛtarāṣṭra Saṃvāda: Pramāda as Mṛtyu
Chapter 42
निवृत्तेनैव दोषेण तपोव्रतमिहाचरेत् । एतदू धातृकृतं वृत्तं सत्यमेव सतां व्रतम्
nivṛttenaiva doṣeṇa tapovratam ihācaret | etad u dhātṛkṛtaṃ vṛttaṃ satyam eva satāṃ vratam ||
Sanatsujāta says: One should undertake austerity and sacred observances in this world only after turning away from fault and vice. This, indeed, is the rule established by the Ordainer (Dhātṛ): truthfulness alone is the vow of the virtuous. The teaching frames tapas not as mere hardship, but as moral purification—rooted in freedom from दोष (inner defects) and grounded in सत्य (truth) as the defining discipline of the good.
सनत्युजात उवाच
Educational Q&A
Austerity and vows become authentic only when grounded in moral withdrawal from दोष (inner faults). For the virtuous, the central vow is सत्य—truthfulness—presented as the Creator-ordained rule of right conduct.
In the Sanatsujātīya discourse of Udyoga Parva, Sanatsujāta instructs the king (Dhṛtarāṣṭra in context) on the nature of true tapas: not external rigor alone, but ethical purification, with truth as the defining discipline of the good.