Shloka 12
Gandhamādana-praveśa and Vṛṣaparvan-āśrama
Entry toward Gandhamādana; hospitality and onward route
तुल्या हि सर्वभूतानामियं वैश्रवणस्य च । एवं गतेषु द्रव्येषु कः क॑ याचितुमर्हति,अतः इसपर अन्य सब प्राणियोंका और कुबेरका भी समान अधिकार है। ऐसी सार्वजनिक वस्तुओंके लिये कौन किससे याचना करेगा?
tulyā hi sarvabhūtānām iyaṃ vaiśravaṇasya ca | evaṃ gateṣu dravyeṣu kaḥ kaṃ yācitum arhati ||
Bhīmasena said: “This wealth is equally the rightful share of all beings—and of Vaiśravaṇa (Kubera) as well. When possessions are thus understood to be common in their ultimate claim, who can properly beg from whom? For what is public by nature, no one stands as a private giver and no one as a private supplicant.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīma argues that material wealth is not an absolute private entitlement: in a deeper moral sense it is shared in claim by all beings, even by Kubera as the archetypal lord of riches. Therefore, treating such goods as purely personal and framing access as 'begging' is ethically questionable; the verse challenges possessiveness and highlights a commons-oriented view of resources.
In the forest narrative of the Vana Parva, Bhīma speaks forcefully about the status of wealth and the legitimacy of asking or withholding it. His statement functions as a justification for taking or using resources without adopting the posture of supplication, emphasizing a moral argument about common entitlement rather than private charity.