Shloka 25
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 72 — Bhīmasena’s counsel on conciliation and Duryodhana’s disposition
शत्रुसूदन! कुलीन पुरुषकी निन्दा हो या वध--इनमेंसे वध ही उसके लिये अत्यन्त गुणकारक है; निन्दा नहीं। निन्दा तो जीवनको घृणित बना देती है ।। तदैव निहतो राजन् यदैव निरपत्रप: | निन्दितश्न महाराज पृथिव्यां सर्वराजभि:,महाराज! जब इस भूमण्डलके सभी राजाओंने निन््दा की, उसी समय उस निर्लज्ज दुर्योधनकी एक प्रकारसे मृत्यु हो गयी
tadaiva nihato rājan yadaiva nirapatrapaḥ | ninditaś ca mahārāja pṛthivyāṁ sarvarājabhiḥ ||
O King, that shameless Duryodhana was, in a sense, slain at the very moment when all the kings upon the earth condemned him. For a noble man, public censure is more ruinous than death: death may preserve honor, but disgrace makes life itself contemptible.
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames public condemnation (nindā) as a form of moral death for a kṣatriya: honor sustains life’s worth, and when a person is universally censured, his social and ethical standing collapses as if he were already slain.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses the king and remarks that Duryodhana’s shamelessness has already met its downfall: once all rulers denounce him, he is effectively ‘killed’ in reputation, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin that follows adharma.