Shloka 4
Yayāti’s Request for Youth: Sons’ Refusals and Pūru’s Acceptance (ययातेः यौवन-विनिमयः)
यः समुत्पतितं क्रोधं क्षमयेह निरस्यति । यथोरगस्त्वचं जीर्णा स वै पुरुष उच्यते,जैसे साँप पुरानी केंचुल छोड़ता है, उसी प्रकार जो मनुष्य उभड़नेवाले क्रोधको यहाँ क्षमाद्वारा त्याग देता है, वही श्रेष्ठ पुरुष कहा गया है
yaḥ samutpatitaṁ krodhaṁ kṣamayehā nirasyati | yathoragas tvacaṁ jīrṇāṁ sa vai puruṣa ucyate ||
Śukra said: He who, when anger suddenly rises, casts it away here in this world through forbearance—for just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin—he indeed is called a true man, a person of excellence. The verse praises self-mastery: the mark of nobility is not the power to strike, but the strength to let anger fall away.
शुक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that true human excellence lies in mastering anger: when wrath arises, one should discard it through kṣamā (forbearance/forgiveness), as effortlessly and decisively as a snake sheds an old skin.
Śukra is delivering a moral instruction in a didactic context, using a vivid natural simile (a serpent shedding its skin) to counsel restraint and patience as marks of a superior person.