Shloka 20
Adhyāya 17 — Gandhārī’s Vilāpa at Duryodhana’s Body (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १७)
विदुरं हवमत्यैष पितरं चैव मन्दभाक् | बालो वृद्धावमानेन मन्दो मृत्युवशं गत:,“यह मूर्ख और अभागा बालक विदुर तथा अपने पिताका अपमान करके बड़े-बूढ़ोंकी अवहेलनाके पापसे ही कालके गालमें चला गया है
viduraṁ havam aty eṣa pitaraṁ caiva mandabhāk | bālo vṛddhāvamānena mando mṛtyuvaśaṁ gataḥ |
Vaiśampāyana said: “This foolish, ill-fated boy, having insulted Vidura and even his own father, has—through the sin of scorning and dishonouring elders—fallen into the grasp of Death.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Disrespect toward elders and the wise—especially through contempt and arrogance—is presented as a grave ethical fault (adharma) that ripens into destructive consequences; moral transgression is linked to inevitable downfall.
Vaiśampāyana comments on a young man’s fate, attributing his death to the wrongdoing of insulting Vidura and his own father and to the broader sin of scorning elders, framing the event as moral causality rather than mere accident.