Shloka 1
Adhyāya 2: Nārada’s Disclosure—Karṇa’s Training and the Brahmin’s Curse (Śānti-parva)
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्याभारत शान्तिपर्वके अन्तर्गत राजधमनुशासनपर्वमें कर्णकी पहचानविषयक पहला अध्याय पूरा हुआ
vaiśampāyana uvāca | sa evam uktas tu munir nārado vadatāṃ varaḥ | kathayām āsa tat sarvaṃ yathā śaptaḥ sa sūtajaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana berkata: “Wahai Raja! Setelah Yudhiṣṭhira berkata demikian, resi Nārada—yang terunggul dalam kalangan penutur—menceritakan dengan lengkap bagaimana Karṇa, putera seorang sais, akhirnya menerima sumpahan. Kisah ini menyingkap sebab-musabab moral di sebalik nasib Karṇa, bahawa kata-kata dan perbuatan yang telah dilepaskan ke dunia akan kembali sebagai akibat, sekalipun menimpa insan yang agung.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds moral causality: even heroic stature does not exempt one from the results of prior actions and speech. By introducing Karṇa’s śāpa, it frames fate as ethically intelligible—consequences arise from causes, and understanding them is part of dharma-inquiry.
In the frame dialogue, after Yudhiṣṭhira’s query, Nārada begins narrating the full account of how Karṇa incurred a curse. This verse functions as a transition into the detailed backstory explaining Karṇa’s misfortunes.