Shloka 13
अध्याय ५०: उत्तरेण सह अर्जुनस्य रथप्रयाणे ध्वजचिह्नैः कौरवसेनानिर्देशः
Arjuna directs Uttara by identifying Kaurava commanders through banners
मूलमेषां महत् कृत्तं सारार्थी चन्दनं यथा । कर्म कारयिथा: सूत तत्र कि विदुरो5ब्रवीत्,सूतपुत्र! जैसे धनकी इच्छा रखनेवाला मनुष्य चन्दनकी लकड़ी काटता है, उसी प्रकार तुमने और दुर्योधनने कपट-द्यूत और द्रौपदीके अपमानद्वारा इन पाण्डवोंका मूलोच्छेद किया। जिस समय तुमलोगोंने पाण्डवोंको कर्मकार (दास) बनाया था, उस दिन वहाँ महात्मा विदुरने क्या कहा था; (उन्होंने जूएको कुरुकुलके संहारका कारण बताया था,) याद है न?
mūlam eṣāṃ mahat kṛttaṃ sārārthī candanaṃ yathā | karma kārayithāḥ sūta tatra kiṃ viduro ’bravīt ||
Kṛpa said: “You have cut down the very root of these men, just as one who seeks the heartwood cuts sandalwood. O Sūta, when you made the Pāṇḍavas into forced laborers through that deceitful dice-game and the humiliation of Draupadī, what did the noble Vidura say there? Do you remember—how he warned that the gambling would become the cause of the Kuru clan’s destruction?”
कृप उवाच
Educational Q&A
Unrighteous acts done for gain—deceitful gambling, stripping others of dignity, and reducing them to servitude—strike at the ‘root’ of social order and inevitably return as collective ruin; wise counsel (Vidura’s warning) should be heeded before consequences become irreversible.
Kṛpa rebukes the addressed ‘Sūta’ (contextually Karṇa) and recalls how Duryodhana’s party, through the rigged dice-game and Draupadī’s humiliation, tried to annihilate the Pāṇḍavas’ very foundation. He pointedly asks what Vidura had said at that time, reminding them of Vidura’s prophecy that the dice would lead to the Kurus’ destruction.