Shloka 43
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
तस्मिन्नपरिहार्येर्थे व्यतीते च विशेषत:,“जब यह विनाश किसी तरह टल नहीं सकता था, विशेषतः जब सब कुछ होकर समाप्त हो गया, तो अब तुम्हें शोक नहीं करना चाहिये। वे सभी वीर संग्राममें मारे गये हैं, अतः शोक करनेके योग्य नहीं हैं। आज जैसी मैं हूँ, वैसी ही तुम भी हो। हम दोनोंको कौन धीरज बँधायेगा? मेरे ही अपराधसे इस श्रेष्ठ कुल॒का संहार हुआ है”
tasminn aparihārye 'rthe vyatīte ca viśeṣataḥ |
Vaiśampāyana said: “When that inevitable calamity could not be averted—and especially now that everything has already happened and come to its end—you should not grieve any longer. Those heroes fell in battle; therefore they are not fit objects of lamentation. Today you are as I am; who, then, will give courage to the other? Through my own fault the destruction of this noble lineage has occurred.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage urges restraint of grief when an event is unavoidable and already concluded, while also acknowledging moral responsibility: lamentation cannot reverse fate, yet one must face the ethical weight of one’s actions and seek steadiness rather than collapse into sorrow.
In the aftermath of the great war, a speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) addresses a grieving person, arguing that the warriors died in battle and that the catastrophe was inevitable; the speaker then confesses personal culpability for the destruction of the noble dynasty and notes that both are equally bereft of consolation.