Shloka 3
मृत्यु-काल-प्रबोधनम् (Instruction on Mortality, Time, and Truth) — Mahābhārata, Śānti-parva 169
नहि तत्र धनं स्फीतं न च सम्बन्धिबान्धवा: । तिष्ठन्ति यत्र सुहृदस्तिष्ठन्तीति मतिर्मम
nahi tatra dhanaṃ sphītaṃ na ca sambandhi-bāndhavāḥ | tiṣṭhanti yatra suhṛdas tiṣṭhantīti matir mama ||
«ကျွန်ုပ်၏ အယူအဆမှာ—စိတ်ကောင်းစေလိုသော မိတ်ဆွေစစ်များ ရပ်တည်နေသည့် နေရာ၌ ငွေကြေးပေါများခြင်းလည်း မကူညီနိုင်၊ ဆွေမျိုးသားချင်းတို့လည်း အမှန်တကယ် မတည်မြဲနိုင်ပါ»။
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Yudhiṣṭhira teaches that genuine well-wishers (suhṛd) are more reliable than wealth or mere kinship; in decisive ethical moments, true support comes from goodwill and virtue rather than money or blood-ties.
In the reflective, instruction-oriented setting of the Śānti Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira voices a personal conviction about human support systems: prosperity and family connections may fail to ‘stand by’ someone, whereas true friends and well-wishers are the ones who remain steadfast.