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Shloka 9

Udyoga Parva Adhyāya 132 — Vidura’s Counsel on Udyama, Yaśas, and Kṣātra-Dharma

सुपूरा वै कुनदिका सुपूरो मूषिकाउ्जलि: । सुसंतोष: कापुरुष: स्वल्पकेनैव तुष्यति

supūrā vai kunadikā supūro mūṣikāñjaliḥ | susantoṣaḥ kāpuruṣaḥ svalpakenaiva tuṣyati ||

ဝါယုက ပြောသည်– «ရေစီးသေးသေးလေးက ရေအနည်းငယ်နဲ့ပဲ လွယ်လွယ်ကူကူ ပြည့်သွားတတ်သလို၊ ကြွက်ရဲ့ လက်ခုပ်တစ်ခုပ်ကလည်း စပါးအနည်းငယ်နဲ့ပဲ ပြည့်သွားတတ်တယ်။ အဲဒီလိုပဲ အကြောက်ကောင်က လွယ်လွယ်နဲ့ ကျေနပ်သွားတတ်ပြီး အနည်းငယ်နဲ့ပဲ တင်းတိမ်သွားတတ်တယ်»။

सुपूराeasily filled / well-filled
सुपूरा:
Karta
TypeAdjective
Rootसुपूर (सु+पूर)
FormFeminine, Nominative, Singular
वैindeed
वै:
TypeIndeclinable
Rootवै
कुनदिकाa small river/stream
कुनदिका:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootकुनदिका
FormFeminine, Nominative, Singular
सुपूरःeasily filled / well-filled
सुपूरः:
Karta
TypeAdjective
Rootसुपूर (सु+पूर)
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
मूषिक-अञ्जलिःa mouse’s handful (a very small measure)
मूषिक-अञ्जलिः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootमूषिक + अञ्जलि
FormFeminine, Nominative, Singular
सुसंतोषःeasily satisfied / readily content
सुसंतोषः:
Karta
TypeAdjective
Rootसुसंतोष (सु+संतोष)
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
कापुरुषःa coward / base man
कापुरुषः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootकापुरुष
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
स्वल्पकेनwith a little (thing/amount)
स्वल्पकेन:
Karana
TypeNoun
Rootस्वल्पक
FormNeuter, Instrumental, Singular
एवonly / just
एव:
TypeIndeclinable
Rootएव
तुष्यतिis satisfied
तुष्यति:
TypeVerb
Rootतुष्
FormPresent, Third, Singular, Parasmaipada

वायुदेव उवाच

V
Vāyudeva (the Wind-god)
K
kunadikā (small stream)
M
mūṣikāñjali (mouse’s handful/measure)

Educational Q&A

The verse criticizes cowardice as a mindset that settles for minimal gain or comfort; such a person is easily appeased and thus unfit for demanding duties where courage and perseverance are required.

Vāyudeva delivers a pointed moral observation using two everyday images—a small stream and a mouse’s tiny handful—to illustrate how quickly a coward becomes satisfied, implying a contrast with the steadfastness expected in the larger conflict setting of the Udyoga Parva.