Shloka 18
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament for Karṇa and Renunciation-Oriented Self-Assessment (शोक-प्रलापः / त्याग-प्रवृत्तिः)
पितृभ्यो देवताभ्यश्व गता वैवस्वतक्षयम्
pitṛbhyo devatābhyaś ca gatā vaivasvatakṣayam; parantu teṣāṃ udyogaḥ sarvathā niṣphalaḥ saṃvṛttaḥ, yataḥ asmābhiḥ tāḥ sarvā mātaraḥ—yeṣāṃ navayuvakāḥ putrāḥ viśuddha-suvarṇamaya-kuṇḍalaiḥ alaṅkṛtāḥ—hatāḥ. te iha-lokasya bhogān anubhavituṃ avasaraṃ na prāpya, devatṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca pitṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca anapākṛtyaiva yama-lokaṃ gatāḥ.
ユディシュティラは言った。「彼らはヴァイヴァスヴァタの住処――ヤマの界――へと赴いた。だが、神々と祖霊のためになされたあらゆる営みは、ことごとく空しくなってしまった。なぜなら、清らかな黄金の耳飾りに飾られた、あの母たちのまだ幼い息子らを、われらが討ち果たしたからだ。この世で受けるべき享楽を味わう機会も得ぬまま、また神々と祖先への負債を返すこともできぬまま、彼らはヤマの世界へ去っていったのだ。」
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames war-death as an ethical rupture: young men die before fulfilling life’s dharmic obligations—especially debts to gods and ancestors—so even well-meant ritual or social efforts become ‘fruitless’ when the lineage and its duties are cut off by violence.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Yudhiṣṭhira laments that many youths—adorned and in their prime—have been killed by their side, and thus have gone to Yama’s realm without enjoying worldly life or repaying obligations to gods and forefathers, intensifying his sense of culpability and sorrow.