Shloka 26
Strī Parva, Adhyāya 2 — Vidura’s Consolation on Kāla, Karma, and the Limits of Lamentation (विदुरोपदेशः)
न जानपदिकं दुःखमेक: शोचितुमहसि । अप्यभावेन युज्येत तच्चास्य न निवर्तते,जो दुःख सारे देशपर पड़ा है, उसके लिये अकेले आपको ही शोक करना उचित नहीं है। शोक करते-करते कोई मर जाय तो भी उसका वह शोक दूर नहीं होता है
na jānāpadikaṁ duḥkham ekaḥ śocitum arhasi | apy abhāvena yujyeta tac cāsya na nivartate ||
Vidura said: “This sorrow that has fallen upon the whole realm is not something you alone should grieve for. Even if a person were to waste away and perish from grieving, that grief would still not be undone.”
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches restraint and perspective in mourning: when suffering is collective and unavoidable, solitary, self-consuming grief is neither appropriate nor effective; excessive lamentation does not reverse loss and can destroy the mourner.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of the Kurukṣetra catastrophe, Vidura speaks as a counselor, addressing a bereaved royal figure and urging them not to collapse into private despair over a calamity that has engulfed the entire kingdom.