Shloka 96

Kośa-saṃjanana and Subtle Dharma

Treasury Formation and Fine-Grained Ethics

Devanagari script

अप्यपर्वणि भज्येत न नमेतेह कस्यचित्‌ | भारत! ऐसे नरेशको कैसे सुख मिलेगा? अतः राजाको सदा उद्यम ही करना चाहिये

Transliteration

apy aparvaṇi bhajyeta na namet iha kasyacit | bhārata |

Translation

Bhīṣma dit : «Quand bien même il devrait se briser en un moment inopportun, qu’il ne s’incline ici devant personne. Ô Bhārata, comment un tel roi pourrait-il connaître le bonheur ? Aussi le roi doit-il toujours s’appliquer à l’effort et ne jamais s’abaisser devant autrui ; car l’effort inébranlable est la vraie vaillance. De même que le bois sec se rompt sans même faire de nœud, et pourtant ne plie pas, ainsi un roi peut périr, mais il ne doit jamais se soumettre».

Word by Word

• {'api': 'even, even if', 'aparvaṇi': 'at a jointless point

• at an improper time/place (lit. ‘not at a node/joint’)', 'bhajyeta': 'may be broken, may snap (optative/passive sense)', 'na': 'not', 'namet': 'should bow, should bend, should submit (optative)', 'iha': 'here, in this world/context', 'kasyacit': 'to anyone, before anyone (gen./dat. sense)', 'bhārata': 'O Bhārata (address to Yudhiṣṭhira, descendant of Bharata)'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Bhārata (Yudhiṣṭhira)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A king’s dignity and effectiveness rest on unwavering resolve: he should rely on sustained effort (udyama) and refuse humiliating submission, even at the cost of ruin. The ethic is kṣātra firmness—better to break than to bend.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on rājadharma, Bhīṣma counsels Yudhiṣṭhira on the qualities of kingship, using the image of dry wood that snaps rather than bends to illustrate steadfastness under pressure.