Shloka 10
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Reproof and Vow-Logic: On Dice-Deception, Exile Terms, and the Governance of Anger
Adhyāya 35
हत्वा वै पुरुषो राजन् निकर्तारमरिंदम । अद्वाय नरकं गच्छेत् स्वर्गंणास्य स सम्मित:,शत्रुदमन नरेश! यदि मनुष्य अपनेको धोखा देनेवाले शत्रुका वध करके तुरंत ही नरकमें पड़ जाय तो उसके लिये वह नरक भी स्वर्गके तुल्य है
hatvā vai puruṣo rājan nikartāram arindama | advayā narakaṃ gacchet svargaṃṇāsya sa sammitāḥ ||
Bhīmasena says: “O King, O subduer of foes—if a man, having slain the treacherous enemy who seeks to undermine him, were to fall at once into hell, then for him that very hell would be reckoned as heaven.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts a warrior-ethic of justice: eliminating a treacherous, undermining enemy is so righteous and necessary that even an adverse afterlife consequence (falling into naraka) would be accepted as equivalent to svarga, because the act is viewed as protective and morally justified.
Bhīmasena addresses a king and argues forcefully for decisive action against a deceitful enemy. He frames the killing of such a foe as an act whose moral worth outweighs fear of post-mortem punishment.