Shloka 25
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 34 — Vidura’s Counsel on Deliberation, Speech-Discipline, and Dharmic Kingship
वियेचन उवाच न मे सुधन्वना सख्यं प्राणयोर्विपणावहे । प्रह्माद तत्त्वं पृच्छामि मा प्रश्नमनृतं वदे:
Virocana uvāca: na me Sudhanvanā sakhyaṁ prāṇayor vipaṇāv ahe. Brahmādad tattvaṁ pṛcchāmi; mā praśnam anṛtaṁ vadeḥ.
วิโรจนะกล่าวว่า “บิดาเอ๋ย! ข้ามิได้เป็นมิตรกับสุธันวะ เราทั้งสองกำลังเอาชีวิตเป็นเดิมพัน ข้าถามท่านด้วยความจริง—อย่าตอบคำถามของข้าด้วยความเท็จ”
वियेचन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Truthfulness is treated as a binding ethical demand, especially when the stakes are grave. The speaker insists that an answer must align with tattva (reality) and not be distorted by fear, favoritism, or self-interest.
Virocana declares that he is not acting as a friend of Sudhanvan; they are engaged in a life-and-death contest. He therefore presses his interlocutor to give an uncompromisingly truthful reply, invoking the authority of primordial tradition (“from Brahmā”).