Shloka 186
येन मां दुःखभागेषु धाता कर्मसु युक्तवान् । अवश्य ही मैंने पूर्वजन्मोंमें कोई ऐसा महान् पाप किया है, जिससे विधाताने मुझे इन दुःखमय कर्मोंमें नियुक्त कर दिया है
yena māṃ duḥkhabhāgeṣu dhātā karmasu yuktavān | avaśya hi mayā pūrvajanmasu ko 'pi tādṛśo mahān pāpaḥ kṛtaḥ, yena vidhātā māṃ etaiḥ duḥkhamayaiḥ karmabhiḥ niyuktavān |
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “There must be some deed by which the Ordainer has bound me to a share of sorrow. Surely, in former births I committed some great sin; therefore the Disposer has appointed me to these painful courses of action.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames suffering as the fruition of past actions (karma) under an ordering cosmic principle (dhātā/vidhātā). Ethically, it models accountability and introspection: instead of blaming others, Dhṛtarāṣṭra interprets his misery as connected to prior wrongdoing and the moral order of the world.
In the opening of Strī Parva, after the catastrophic war, Dhṛtarāṣṭra speaks in grief and bewilderment. He reflects that his present anguish and the tragic outcomes surrounding him must be the result of some grave sin from earlier lives, and that fate has therefore bound him to sorrowful consequences.