Shloka 55
उत्पातवर्णनम् (Utpāta-varṇanam) — Catalogue of Portents
हन्यात् स एन॑ यो हन्यात् कुलधर्म स्विकां तनुम् | कालेनोत्पथगन्तासि शक््ये सति यथा55पदि,कुलधर्म अपने शरीरके ही समान है। जो इस कुलधर्मका नाश करता है, उसे वह धर्म ही नष्ट कर देता है। जबतक धर्मका पालन सम्भव है (जबतक तुमपर कोई आपत्ति नहीं आयी है), तबतक तुम कालसे प्रेरित होकर ही धर्मकी अवहेलना करके कुमार्गपर चल रहे हो, जैसा कि बहुधा लोग किसी आपफत्तिमें पड़नेपर ही करते हैं
hanyāt sa enaṃ yo hanyāt kuladharma-svikāṃ tanum | kālenotpatha-gantāsi śakye sati yathā || 55 ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “He who destroys the clan’s dharma destroys, as it were, his own very body; and that very dharma strikes him down in return. While it is still possible for you to uphold righteousness—before any unavoidable calamity has overtaken you—you are, driven by Time, turning away from dharma and walking the wrong path, as people often do only after they have fallen into distress.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Clan-dharma is treated as inseparable from one’s own life: to violate it is self-destructive. One should uphold dharma while it remains practicable, rather than abandoning it under the pressure of ‘Time’ or impending crisis.
Vaiśaṃpāyana, narrating the events of Bhīṣma-parvan, conveys a moral admonition: the listener (implicitly a decision-maker in the unfolding conflict) is warned that turning to an unrighteous path before necessity compels it is a grave ethical error with self-harming consequences.