Shloka 27
त्वं तु सर्वाभिशड्कित्वान्निष्ठर: पापनिश्चय:
tvaṃ tu sarvābhiśaṅkitvān niṣṭhuraḥ pāpaniścayaḥ
But you—suspecting everyone—have become hard-hearted, with a resolve fixed on wrongdoing. Sanjaya’s words frame this as a moral diagnosis: mistrust has hardened the mind, and that inner corruption now drives one’s choices amid the war’s turmoil.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that universal suspicion corrodes character: when distrust becomes habitual, it hardens the heart (niṣṭhura) and can settle into a deliberate commitment to wrongdoing (pāpaniścaya). Ethical failure is shown as an inner disposition before it becomes an outer act.
Sanjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, delivers a sharp moral appraisal of the addressed person’s mindset—contrasting earlier possibilities with the present state: pervasive suspicion has made him harsh and firmly inclined toward sinful action, a tone typical of battlefield counsel and blame in the Droṇa Parva.