Shloka 17
चित्रसेन-समागमः / The Engagement with Citrasena and the Gandharvas
पापानुगास्तु पापास्ता: पतीनुपसृजन्त्युत । न जातु विप्रियं भर्तु: स्त्रिया कार्य कथंचन,“इस प्रकार पापियोंका अनुसरण करनेवाली वे पापिनी स्त्रियाँ अपने पतियोंको अनेक प्रकारकी विपत्तियोंमें डाल देती हैं। अतः साध्वी स्त्रीको चाहिये कि वह कभी किसी प्रकार भी पतिका अप्रिय न करे
pāpānugāstu pāpāstāḥ patīn upasṛjanty uta | na jātu vipriyaṃ bhartuḥ striyā kāryaṃ kathaṃcana ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Those sinful women who follow after sin bring their husbands into manifold calamities. Therefore a virtuous wife should never, in any way whatsoever, do what is displeasing to her husband.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that a wife who aligns herself with sinful conduct can become a cause of her husband’s downfall and suffering; it therefore commends restraint and dharmic behavior within marriage, expressed here as avoiding actions that would be displeasing to the husband.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, delivers a moral observation within the Vana Parva discourse: he contrasts sinful women who lead husbands into misfortune with the ideal of a sādhvī (virtuous wife) who maintains harmony and dharma in the household.