Shloka 246
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Remorse and Vyāsa’s Teaching on Impermanence (Śoka-nivāraṇa)
जातिष्वन्यास्वपि यथा न भवेयं कुलान्तकृत् आपलोग मुझ गुरुघातीको आमरण अनशनके लिये बैठा हुआ समझें, जिससे दूसरे जन्मोंमें मैं फिर अपने कुलका विनाश करनेवाला न होऊँ
jātiṣv anyāsv api yathā na bhaveyaṃ kulāntakṛt | āpāḥ loko māṃ gurughātikaṃ ā-maraṇam anaśanāya upaviṣṭaṃ manyeta, yena dvitīyeṣu janmasu punar ahaṃ na bhaveyaṃ svakulavināśakṛt ||
Wika ni Yudhiṣṭhira: “Upang kahit sa iba pang mga kapanganakan ay hindi na ako maging tagapuksa ng aking angkan—hayaang ituring ako ng mga tao, ang pumatay sa mga nakatatanda at mga guro, bilang isang umupo upang mag-ayuno hanggang kamatayan; upang sa mga susunod na buhay ay hindi ko na muling idulot ang kapahamakan sa sarili kong pamilya.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral responsibility after catastrophic violence: Yudhiṣṭhira seeks expiation for the grave fault of harming revered elders/teachers and fears the karmic tendency to repeat such lineage-destroying acts in future births. Atonement is presented as both ethical accountability and a means to break harmful karmic patterns.
In Śānti Parva, after the war, Yudhiṣṭhira is overwhelmed by remorse. Here he expresses a wish that people recognize him as undertaking a fast unto death as penance, so that he will not again become a ‘kulāntakṛt’—a destroyer of his own family line—in other births.