Shloka 14
आपद्-राजनीतिः (Āpad-rājanīti) — Policy Options in Multi-Front Crisis
सत्कृत्य नोपकुरुते परं शक््त्या यथा्हत: । या सक्ता सर्वभूतेषु सा55शा कृशतरी मया
satkṛtya nopakurute paraṁ śaktyā yathāhataḥ | yā śaktā sarvabhūteṣu sāśā kṛśatarī mayā ||
Kṛśa dit : «Lorsqu’un homme honore un suppliant et, après avoir éveillé son attente, ne lui rend pourtant pas secours à la mesure due selon ses moyens, alors l’espérance qui naît dans le cœur de tous les êtres devient plus ténue que moi — plus décharnée que moi-même.»
कृश उवाच
Educational Q&A
Do not create expectations through honor and promises if you will not help according to your capacity; raising hope and then failing to act is ethically worse than refusing plainly, because it diminishes trust and harms the vulnerable.
Kṛśa comments on a moral failing: a person respectfully receives a petitioner and kindles hope, but then withholds appropriate assistance. Kṛśa uses a striking comparison—hope itself becomes ‘more emaciated than me’—to show how such conduct starves and weakens the spirit of beings.