Shloka 32
धृतराष्ट्रस्य मूर्च्छा—व्यासोपदेशः
Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Collapse and Vyāsa’s Counsel
दैवयोगसे उसके भाई भी वैसे ही उत्पन्न हुए। मामा शकुनि और परम मित्र कर्ण भी उसी विचारके मिल गये ।। समुत्पन्ना विनाशार्थ पृथिव्यां सहिता नृपा: । यादृशो जायते राजा तादृशो5स्य जनो भवेत्,ये सब नरेश शत्रुओंका विनाश करनेके लिये ही एक साथ इस भूमण्डलपर उत्पन्न हुए थे। जैसा राजा होता है, वैसे ही उसके स्वजन और सेवक भी होते हैं
sam-utpannā vināśārthaṃ pṛthivyāṃ sahitā nṛpāḥ | yādṛśo jāyate rājā tādṛśo 'sya jano bhavet ||
Vyāsa said: These kings were born together upon the earth for the very purpose of bringing about destruction. For as a king is, so too become his people—his kin and his servants—shaped in the same likeness. In this, the epic points to a moral causality: leadership does not remain private; it reproduces itself in the conduct and character of those who gather around it, and thus a ruler’s nature can become the seed of collective ruin.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that a ruler’s character propagates through his circle and subjects: as the king is, so become his people. Therefore, ethical failure or virtue in leadership scales into collective outcomes, even to the point of widespread destruction.
Vyāsa reflects on the larger design behind the rise of many rulers in the Mahābhārata’s conflict, stating that they appeared together on earth with destruction as the outcome, and he explains this through the principle that a king’s nature shapes the nature and actions of those aligned with him.