Shloka 51
यक्ष उवाच कि क्षत्रियाणां देवत्वं कश्न धर्म: सतामिव । कश्नैषां मानुषो भाव: किमेषामसतामिव,यक्षने पूछा-.क्षत्रियोंमें देवत्व क्या है? उनमें सत्पुरुषोंका-सा धर्म क्या है? उनका मनुष्यभाव क्या है? और उनमें असत्पुरुषोंका-सा आचरण क्या है?
yakṣa uvāca: kiṁ kṣatriyāṇāṁ devatvaṁ kaś ca dharmaḥ satām iva | ka eṣāṁ mānuṣo bhāvaḥ kim eṣām asatām iva ||
The Yakṣa said: “What, in a kṣatriya, is the quality that makes him ‘godlike’? What is the dharma in him that resembles the conduct of the virtuous? What in him is simply human? And what in him resembles the ways of the wicked?”
यक्ष उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a moral analysis of kṣatriya character by separating four layers: the ‘godlike’ excellence, the virtue aligned with the good, the ordinary human element, and the tendency that mirrors the wicked—inviting discernment about true righteous leadership.
In the Yakṣa–Yudhiṣṭhira dialogue of the Vana Parva, the Yakṣa tests the responder through probing questions. Here he asks for a nuanced definition of a kṣatriya’s nature and conduct across virtuous, human, and unvirtuous dimensions.