Shloka 5
Draupadī’s Rebuke of Jayadratha and Dhaumya’s Admonition (Āraṇyaka-parva, Adhyāya 252)
अतिभीरुमतिकक्लीबं दीर्घसूत्रं प्रमादिनम् । व्यसनाद् विषयाक्रान्तं न भजन्ति नृपं प्रजा:,जो राजा अत्यन्त डरपोक, बहुत कायर, दीर्घसूत्री (आलसी), प्रमादी और दुर्व्यसनवश विषयोंमें फँसा होता है, उसे प्रजा अपना स्वामी नहीं स्वीकार करती है
atibhīrumati-kaklībaṁ dīrghasūtraṁ pramādinam | vyasanād viṣayākrāntaṁ na bhajanti nṛpaṁ prajāḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: The people do not accept as their ruler a king whose mind is excessively fearful—who is unmanly and spiritless, procrastinating and negligent, and who, driven by vice, is overpowered by sense-pleasures. Such a man fails in the very discipline of kingship, and therefore loses the allegiance of his subjects.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler’s legitimacy depends on inner discipline and decisive courage. If a king is ruled by fear, procrastination, negligence, and addictions to pleasures, the people naturally withdraw allegiance; kingship requires self-mastery before mastery of the realm.
Vaiśampāyana states a general principle of rājadharma: the populace does not accept as sovereign a king who is timid, irresolute, and dominated by vices and sense-enjoyments. The verse functions as ethical-political instruction about the standards expected of a ruler.