Shloka 2
Draupadī’s Rebuke of Jayadratha and Dhaumya’s Admonition (Āraṇyaka-parva, Adhyāya 252)
शकुनिरुवाच सम्यगुक्तं हि कर्णेन तच्छुतं कौरव त्वया । मया हूतां श्रियं स्फीतां तां मोहादपहाय किम्,शकुनि बोला--कुरुनन्दन! कर्णने बहुत अच्छी बात कही है, जो तुमने सुनी ही है। मैंने पाण्डवोंसे तुम्हारे लिये जिस समृद्धशालिनी राज-लक्ष्मीका अपहरण किया है, तुम उसे मोहवश क्यों त्याग रहे हो?
śakunir uvāca samyag uktaṃ hi karṇena tac chrutaṃ kaurava tvayā | mayā hūtāṃ śriyaṃ sphītāṃ tāṃ mohād apahāya kim |
Shakuni said: “What Karna has spoken is indeed well spoken, and you, O Kaurava, have heard it. I have seized for you from the Pandavas that flourishing royal fortune—Rajya-Lakṣmī itself; why would you, out of delusion, cast it away?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how moha (delusion) can make a ruler abandon hard-won prosperity and political advantage. It frames counsel in terms of pragmatic kingship, while implicitly warning that attachment and confusion distort judgment—an ethical tension between expedient gain and clear-sighted discernment.
Shakuni endorses Karna’s earlier statement as correct and reminds the Kaurava prince that he has already heard it. He then presses him not to relinquish the ‘flourishing royal fortune’ that Shakuni claims to have secured from the Pandavas on his behalf, questioning why he would give it up out of delusion.