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 berkata: “Bila seseorang memuliakan seorang pemohon dan, setelah menumbuhkan harapannya, tetap tidak menolong sebagaimana patut menurut kemampuannya, maka harapan yang bangkit di hati semua makhluk menjadi lebih kurus daripada diriku—lebih menyusut daripada aku sendiri.”
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.