Shloka 14
ऋषिसमागमः — युधिष्ठिरस्य शोकवर्णनम्
Sage Assembly and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Articulation of Grief
इदं मम महद् दुःखं वर्तते हृदि नित्यदा । कृत्वा ज्ञातिक्षयमिमं महान्तं लोभकारितम्,परन्तु मेरे हृदयमें निरन्तर यह महान् दुःख बना रहता है कि मैंने लोभवश अपने बन्धु- बान्धवोंका महान् संहार करा डाला
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | idaṃ mama mahad duḥkhaṃ vartate hṛdi nityadā | kṛtvā jñātikṣayam imaṃ mahāntaṃ lobhakāritam ||
Yudhiṣṭhira disse: “Esta grande tristeza habita em meu coração a todo instante: que, impelido pela cobiça, provoquei uma vasta destruição entre meus próprios parentes.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds moral accountability: even a victorious king must confront the inner cost of violence, especially when it is linked—rightly or wrongly in one’s conscience—to greed. It frames grief and remorse as ethical signals that compel reflection on motive (lobha) and consequence (jñātikṣaya).
In the opening of Śānti Parva, after the devastating Kurukṣetra war, Yudhiṣṭhira speaks from a place of deep anguish. He confesses that constant sorrow grips him because the war resulted in the massive destruction of his own relatives, which he attributes to greed-driven causation.