Shloka 6
Adhyaya 60: Self-Assertion, Daiva, and the Rhetoric of Inevitability (उद्योग पर्व)
“भरतश्रेष्ठ! देवता मनुष्योंकी भाँति काम, क्रोध, लोभ और द्वेषभावसे किसी कार्यमें प्रवृत्त नहीं होते हैं ।। यदा हानिनिश्च वायुश्न धर्म इन्द्रोडश्विनावपि । कामयोगातु प्रवर्तेरन् न पार्था दुःखमाप्तनुयु:,“यदि अग्नि, वायु, धर्म, इन्द्र तथा दोनों अश्विनी-कुमार भी कामनाके वशीभूत होकर सब कार्योमें प्रवृत्त होने लग जाते, तब तो कुन्तीपुत्रोंकी कभी दुःख उठाना ही नहीं पड़ता
bharataśreṣṭha! devatā manuṣyāṇāṃ yathā kāma-krodha-lobha-dveṣa-bhāvena kasyāṃcid api kriyāyāṃ na pravartante. yadā hy agnir vāyuś ca dharma indro ’śvināv api kāma-yogāt tu pravarteran, na pārthā duḥkham āptum anuyuḥ.
Vaiśampāyana said: “O best of the Bharatas, the gods do not set themselves to action the way human beings do—driven by desire, anger, greed, and hatred. For if Agni, Vāyu, Dharma, Indra, and even the two Aśvin twins were to act in every matter under the compulsion of desire, then the sons of Kuntī (the Pāṇḍavas) would never have had to undergo suffering at all.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Divine beings are portrayed as not acting from the unstable human drives of desire, anger, greed, and hatred. The verse highlights an ethical contrast: when action is governed by passion, it becomes partial and harmful; when action is governed by dharma, it is restrained and just. The Pāṇḍavas’ suffering is thus not because the gods are desire-driven interveners, but because cosmic order is not bent by personal craving.
Vaiśampāyana addresses a Bharata prince and explains why the gods should not be imagined as acting like humans under emotional compulsion. He argues hypothetically that if major deities (Agni, Vāyu, Dharma, Indra, and the Aśvins) acted under desire in all affairs, the Pāṇḍavas would never have had to endure hardship—implying that divine governance is not arbitrary favoritism but aligned with dharma and the larger order.