Shloka 23
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Remorse and Vyāsa’s Teaching on Impermanence (Śoka-nivāraṇa)
शोचामि पृथिवीं हीनां पञ्चभि: पर्वतैरिव । जैसे पृथ्वी पाँच पर्वतोंसे हीन हो जाय, उसी प्रकार अपने पाँचों पुत्रोंसे हीन होकर दुःखसे आतुर हुई द्रौपदीके लिये भी मुझे निरन्तर शोक बना रहता है ।।
śocāmi pṛthivīṁ hīnāṁ pañcabhiḥ parvatair iva | so ’ham āgaskaraḥ pāpaḥ pṛthivīnāśakārakaḥ ||
ユディシュティラは言った。「私は大地を嘆く。まるで大地が五つの山を失ったかのように。まったく同じく、五人の息子を奪われ苦悶するドラウパディーのために、私の悲しみは絶えることがない。かくして私は—罪を負い、罪に染まり、国土の破滅を招いた者として—ダルマと王道における己の過ちを嘆き続ける。」
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral responsibility after catastrophe: a ruler must not treat loss as abstract fate but as a personal ethical burden. Yudhiṣṭhira’s grief becomes self-scrutiny—acknowledging guilt and the duty to restore order (dharma) after the ruin brought by conflict.
In Śānti Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira is overwhelmed by remorse after the war. Here he compares the earth bereft of five mountains to Draupadī bereft of her five sons, and he condemns himself as culpable—someone whose actions have contributed to the realm’s devastation and to Draupadī’s suffering.