Shloka 15
सत्यं चानृततः श्रेयो नृशंस्याच्चानृशंसता । तमेवं बहुदोषं तु क्रोधं साधुविवर्जितम्
satyaṃ cānṛtataḥ śreyo nṛśaṃsyāccānṛśaṃsatā | tamevaṃ bahudoṣaṃ tu krodhaṃ sādhuvivarjitam ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Truth is better than falsehood, and compassion is better than cruelty. Therefore anger—so full of many faults, and shunned by the good—should be cast aside.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Truthfulness and compassion are upheld as superior virtues, while anger is portrayed as a multi-faulted impulse that the virtuous deliberately avoid; the ethical ideal is to renounce anger in favor of dharmic restraint.
Yudhiṣṭhira articulates a moral evaluation of conduct—contrasting truth with falsehood and compassion with cruelty—and uses this contrast to argue that anger, being ethically corrosive, should be abandoned.