Mahabharata 9.5.34 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 5, Shloka 34
शल्यस्य सेनापत्याभ्युपगमः | Śalya’s Acceptance of Command
कृपणं विलपन्नार्तो जरयाभिपरिप्लुत: । ग्रियते रुदतां मध्ये ज्ञातीनां न स पूरुष:
sañjaya uvāca | kṛpaṇaṃ vilapann ārto jarayābhipariplutaḥ | grīyate rudatāṃ madhye jñātīnāṃ na sa pūruṣaḥ ||
Санджая сказал: Тот, чьё тело изъедено старостью, кто мучим болезнью и жалко рыдает, и умирает среди родичей, сидящих вокруг и плачущих,—беспомощно причитая, когда оставляет жизнь,—не достоин имени «муж».
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts dignified endurance with helpless, self-pitying collapse: being overcome by age and suffering is natural, but surrendering to despair and dying in pitiable lamentation is portrayed as lacking the steadiness and courage expected of a ‘pūruṣa’ (a person of true manly worth).
Sañjaya offers a reflective, moralizing observation about a pitiable kind of death—one that occurs amid grieving relatives—using it to comment on character and the ideal of facing decline and death with firmness rather than plaintive helplessness.
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