Shloka 226
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
कश्चेतयानो निवसेन्मुहूर्तमपि मानव: । संस्कारशून्य दुरात्मा बाहीक ऐसे ही स्वभावके होते हैं। उनके पास कौन सचेत मनुष्य दो घड़ी भी निवास करेगा?”
kaś cetayāno nivasen muhūrtam api mānavaḥ | saṃskāraśūnyo durātmā bāhīkaḥ ||
Karna disse: “Que homem consciente e discernente permaneceria sequer um instante com um Bāhīka—desprovido de refinamento e de reta conduta, de índole perversa? Tal é a sua natureza.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames ethical association as a moral choice: a discerning person should avoid the company of those lacking saṃskāra (refined conduct) and possessing a harmful disposition. It emphasizes the value of cultivated character and the dangers of corrupting companionship, though it does so through harsh, polemical language.
In the Karṇa Parva context, Karna is speaking in a heated wartime exchange and uses a rhetorical question to disparage the Bāhīkas, portraying them as uncultured and wicked, and asserting that no sensible person would remain with them even briefly.