Shloka 14
आपद्-राजनीतिः (Āpad-rājanīti) — Policy Options in Multi-Front Crisis
सत्कृत्य नोपकुरुते परं शक््त्या यथा्हत: । या सक्ता सर्वभूतेषु सा55शा कृशतरी मया,जब मनुष्य सत्कार करके याचकको आशा दिलाकर भी उसका शक्तिके अनुसार यथायोग्य उपकार नहीं करता, उस स्थितिमें सम्पूर्ण भूतोंके मनमें जो आशा होती है, वह मुझसे भी अत्यन्त कृश होती है
satkṛtya nopakurute paraṁ śaktyā yathāhataḥ | yā śaktā sarvabhūteṣu sāśā kṛśatarī mayā ||
Kṛśa disse: “Quando um homem honra um suplicante e, depois de elevar sua expectativa, ainda assim não presta auxílio na devida medida segundo sua capacidade, então a esperança que surge no coração de todos os seres torna-se mais tênue do que eu — mais emagrecida do que eu mesmo.”
कृश उवाच
Educational Q&A
Do not create expectations through honor and promises if you will not help according to your capacity; raising hope and then failing to act is ethically worse than refusing plainly, because it diminishes trust and harms the vulnerable.
Kṛśa comments on a moral failing: a person respectfully receives a petitioner and kindles hope, but then withholds appropriate assistance. Kṛśa uses a striking comparison—hope itself becomes ‘more emaciated than me’—to show how such conduct starves and weakens the spirit of beings.