Shloka 413
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament for Karṇa and Renunciation-Oriented Self-Assessment (शोक-प्रलापः / त्याग-प्रवृत्तिः)
जन्मक्षयनिमित्तं च प्राप्तुं शक्यमिति श्रुति: । मैंने परिग्रह (राज्य और धनके संग्रह) की इच्छा रखकर केवल पाप बटोरा है, जो जन्म और मृत्युका मुख्य कारण है। श्रुतिका कथन है कि “परिग्रहसे पाप ही प्राप्त हो सकता है!
janmakṣayanimittaṃ ca prāptuṃ śakyam iti śrutiḥ | mayā parigraha-rājya-dhana-saṃgrahasya icchāṃ kṛtvā kevalaṃ pāpaṃ baṭoritaṃ, yat janma-mṛtyoḥ mukhya-kāraṇam | śruteḥ vacanaṃ: “parigrahāt pāpam eva prāptuṃ śakyate” iti |
युधिष्ठिर उवाच— जन्मक्षयनिमित्तं च प्राप्तुं शक्यमिति श्रुतिः। परिग्रहकामनां कृत्वा—राज्यधनसंग्रहे—मया केवलं पापमेव संचितं, यज्जन्ममरणयोर्मुख्यं कारणम्। श्रुतिरपि वदति—“परिग्रहात् पापमेव प्राप्यते” इति।
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Attachment to acquisition (parigraha)—especially the urge to hoard power and wealth—breeds pāpa and binds one to saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). The verse frames renunciation and restraint as ethically superior to possessiveness.
In the Śānti Parva’s reflective aftermath of the war, Yudhiṣṭhira laments the moral burden of rulership and conquest. He interprets his desire to secure and accumulate kingdom and wealth as a spiritual fault, citing śruti to condemn possessiveness as a source of sin and bondage.