Shloka 178
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
अहो कष्टं नरेन्द्रस्य कस्याप्येष कुले शिशुः ।
जातो नीतः कृतान्तेन कामप्याशां दुरात्मना ॥
aho kaṣṭaṃ narendrasya kasyāpy eṣa kule śiśuḥ | jāto nītaḥ kṛtāntena kām apy āśāṃ durātmanā ||
ಅಯ್ಯೋ, ಯಾವುದೋ ರಾಜನಿಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟು ದುಃಖಕರ! ಈ ಶಿಶು ಯಾವುದೋ ರಾಜವಂಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಜನಿಸಿದವನು; ಕ್ರೂರ ಕೃತಾಂತನು (ಮರಣ) ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಆಶೆಯೊಂದಿಗೂ ಅವನನ್ನು ಕಸಿದುಕೊಂಡನು.
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FAQs
Lineage and status cannot shield one from death; the verse cultivates vairāgya (detachment) and empathy by emphasizing the universality of loss.
Ethical instruction through royal narrative (ākhyāna/vaṃśa material), not a cosmological or manvantara enumeration.
‘Hope’ being taken with the child points to the mind’s clinging (āśā-bandha). Kṛtānta represents the inexorable ‘end’ that dissolves all projections.