Shloka 89
राजन! नृपश्रेष्ठ अपने परम कल्याणकी इच्छा रखनेवाले श्रोताको महाभारतको सुनने तथा इसका पारायण करनेके लिये सदा प्रयत्नशील रहना चाहिये ।। भारतं शृणुयान्नित्यं भारतं परिकीर्तयेत् । भारतं भवने यस्य तस्य हस्तगतो जय:,प्रतिदिन महाभारत सुने। नित्यप्रति महाभारतका पाठ करे। जिसके घरमें महाभारत ग्रन्थ मौजूद है, विजय उसके हाथमें है
rājan nṛpaśreṣṭha ātmanaḥ parama-kalyāṇecchāṃ dhārayamāṇena śrotṛṇā mahābhārataṃ śrotuṃ tad-adhyetuṃ ca sadā yatnaśīlena bhavitavyam | bhārataṃ śṛṇuyān nityaṃ bhārataṃ parikīrtayet | bhārataṃ bhavane yasya tasya hastagato jayaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O King, best among rulers: a listener who seeks his highest good should always strive to hear the Mahābhārata and to recite it. One should listen to the Bhārata daily and also proclaim it. In whose home the Bhārata is present, victory is held in his very hand.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that regular engagement with the Mahābhārata—hearing it and reciting it—is a sustained spiritual-ethical discipline aimed at one’s highest welfare (parama-kalyāṇa). Keeping the Bhārata in one’s home symbolizes continual access to dharma-guidance, which is said to bring ‘victory’—both practical success and moral triumph.
In the closing portion of the Mahābhārata (Svargārohaṇa Parva), the narrator Vaiśampāyana addresses the king and concludes with a phalaśruti-like statement, praising the merit and benefit of listening to and reciting the epic, and asserting its auspicious power for those who preserve it in their household.