Shloka 4

Sanatsujāta-Āhvāna (Summoning Sanatsujāta) — Vidura’s Invocation and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Doubt

Devanagari script

उभे सत्ये क्षत्रियैतस्य विद्धि मोहान्मृत्यु: सम्मतो5यं कवीनाम्‌ । प्रमाद॑ वै मृत्युमहं ब्रवीमि तथाप्रमादममृतत्वं ब्रवीमि,क्षत्रिय! इस प्रश्नके उक्त दोनों ही पहलुओंको सत्य समझो। कुछ विद्वानोंने मोहवश इस मृत्युकी सत्ता स्वीकार की है; किंतु मेरा कहना तो यह है कि प्रमाद ही मृत्यु है और अप्रमाद ही अमृत है

Transliteration

ubhe satye kṣatriyaitasya viddhi mohān mṛtyuḥ sammato ’yaṃ kavīnām | pramādaṃ vai mṛtyum ahaṃ bravīmi tathāpramādam amṛtatvaṃ bravīmi, kṣatriya ||

Translation

اے کشتری! اس معاملے کے دونوں پہلو سچ سمجھو۔ بعض شعرا اور رشیوں نے فریبِ نظر کے باعث موت کو ایک حقیقی اور آخری قوت مان لیا ہے؛ مگر میں کہتا ہوں کہ غفلت ہی موت ہے، اور غفلت سے آزادی ہی اَمرتَوا (لازوالیت) ہے۔

Word by Word

• {'ubhe': 'both (two)', 'satye': 'true, valid (dual of satya)', 'kṣatriya': 'Kshatriya

• here, an address to the king', 'etasya': 'of this (matter/question)', 'viddhi': 'know (imperative of √vid)', 'mohāt': 'from delusion, due to confusion (ablative of moha)', 'mṛtyuḥ': 'death', 'sammataḥ': 'considered, accepted as authoritative/true', 'ayam': 'this', 'kavīnām': 'of poets/sages (genitive plural of kavi)', 'pramāda': 'heedlessness, negligence, moral-spiritual carelessness', 'vai': 'indeed, emphatic particle', 'bravīmi': 'I say, I declare (1st sg. of √brū)', 'tathā': 'and likewise, similarly', 'apramāda': 'non-negligence

• vigilance, wakeful care', 'amṛtatva': 'immortality

Speaker

सनत्युजात उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanatsujata

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Sanatsujata reframes death and immortality ethically: 'death' is not merely a physical event but the inner collapse caused by pramāda (heedlessness), while 'immortality' is the steady wakefulness of apramāda—disciplined attention to dharma, truth, and self-control.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Sanatsujātīya section of Udyoga Parva, the sage Sanatsujata instructs a Kshatriya king on profound questions about death, delusion, and the path to fearlessness. This verse contrasts common views that treat death as an ultimate reality with Sanatsujata’s teaching that moral-spiritual negligence is the real 'death.'