Shloka 15
Adhyāya 3: Indra’s Invitation and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Refusal to Abandon the Dog
Svargārohaṇa Test
युधिछिर उवाच न विद्यते संधिरथापि विग्रहो मृतैर्मत्यैरिति लोकेषु निष्ठा । न ते मया जीवयितुं हि शक््या- स्ततस्त्यागस्तेषु कृतो न जीवताम्,युधिष्ठिरने कहा--भगवन्! संसारमें यह निश्चित बात है कि मरे हुए मनुष्योंके साथ न तो किसीका मेल होता है न विरोध ही। द्रौपदी तथा अपने भाइयोंको जीवित करना मेरे वशकी बात नहीं है; अतः मर जानेपर मैंने उनका त्याग किया है, जीवितावस्थामें नहीं
Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca: na vidyate sandhir athāpi vigraho mṛtair martyair iti lokeṣu niṣṭhā | na te mayā jīvitum hi śakyās tatas tyāgas teṣu kṛto na jīvatām ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “In the world it is held as a settled truth that with the dead there can be neither reconciliation nor hostility. I have no power to restore Draupadī and my brothers to life; therefore I have let them go only after their death—not while they were living.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Yudhiṣṭhira articulates a dharmic realism: once death has occurred, ordinary social categories like alliance and enmity lose their meaning. Since he cannot reverse death, his ‘abandonment’ is not callousness but acceptance of the irreversible, marking the ethical shift from worldly bonds to renunciation.
During the great departure (mahāprasthāna), after Draupadī and the brothers have fallen, Yudhiṣṭhira continues onward. He explains that he did not forsake them while alive; rather, because they are dead and cannot be revived, he must proceed, embodying the ascetic resolve of the final journey.