Shloka 226
कश्चेतयानो निवसेन्मुहूर्तमपि मानव: । संस्कारशून्य दुरात्मा बाहीक ऐसे ही स्वभावके होते हैं। उनके पास कौन सचेत मनुष्य दो घड़ी भी निवास करेगा?”
kaś cetayāno nivasen muhūrtam api mānavaḥ | saṃskāraśūnyo durātmā bāhīkaḥ ||
Karna said: “What conscious, discerning person would stay even for a moment with a Bāhīka—one devoid of refinement and right conduct, of wicked disposition? Such is their very nature.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames ethical association as a moral choice: a discerning person should avoid the company of those lacking saṃskāra (refined conduct) and possessing a harmful disposition. It emphasizes the value of cultivated character and the dangers of corrupting companionship, though it does so through harsh, polemical language.
In the Karṇa Parva context, Karna is speaking in a heated wartime exchange and uses a rhetorical question to disparage the Bāhīkas, portraying them as uncultured and wicked, and asserting that no sensible person would remain with them even briefly.