Shloka 12
Nakula’s Adaptive Counsel to Kṛṣṇa in the Kuru Assembly (उद्योगपर्व, अध्याय ७८)
मम चापि स वध्यो हि जगतश्नापि भारत । येन कौमारके यूय॑ सर्वे विप्रकृता: सदा,भारत! जिसने तुम सब लोगोंको कुमारावस्थामें भी सदा नाना प्रकारके कष्ट दिये हैं, जिस दुरात्मा एवं निर्दयीने तुम्हारे राज्यका भी अपहरण कर लिया है तथा जो पापी दुर्योधन युधिष्ठिरके पास सम्पत्ति देखकर शान्त नहीं रह सकता है, वह मेरे और समस्त संसारके लिये भी वध्य है
mama cāpi sa vadhyo hi jagataś cāpi bhārata | yena kaumārake yūyaṁ sarve viprakṛtāḥ sadā ||
Arjuna said: “That man is indeed to be slain—by me, and even for the good of the whole world, O Bhārata—for it is he who, even from your boyhood, has continually wronged you all and caused you many hardships.”
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Arjuna frames punishment as a dharmic necessity: persistent, deliberate wrongdoing—especially against the innocent and over a long period—can make a wrongdoer ‘vadhya’ (liable to just killing) within the ethics of kṣatriya justice and the protection of social order.
In Udyoga Parva, as war becomes imminent, Arjuna declares that the person who has continually harmed the Pāṇḍavas since childhood is worthy of being slain—by Arjuna himself and, in effect, for the welfare of the world—signaling resolve for a righteous war against entrenched injustice.