Shloka 12

Devanagari script

जातो<सि धर्मलोपेन ततस्ते बुद्धिरीदूशी

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca | jāto 'si dharmalopena tatas te buddhir īdūṣī |

Translation

Sañjaya nói: “Ngươi sinh ra do một sự sai lạc của dharma; vì thế trí hiểu của ngươi đã bị hoen đục. Nương tựa bọn người hèn kém, tâm ngươi—bị lòng đố kỵ thúc đẩy—đã sinh thù ghét cả những Pāṇḍava đức hạnh; và vì vậy, trong hội đường Kaurava, ta đã nhiều lần phải nghe từ ngươi những lời cay nghiệt.”

Word by Word

• {'sañjaya uvāca': 'Sanjaya said', 'jātaḥ asi': 'you were born / you have been born', 'dharmalopena': 'through a loss/violation of dharma

• by a breach of righteous conduct', 'tataḥ': 'therefore

• from that cause', 'te': 'your', 'buddhiḥ': 'intellect

• moral understanding', 'īdūṣī (dūṣitā)': 'tainted

• defiled', 'īrṣyā': 'envy

• jealousy', 'guṇavān': 'virtuous

• possessing good qualities', 'pāṇḍavāḥ': 'the sons of Pāṇḍu

• the Pāṇḍavas', 'dveṣa': 'hatred

• hostility', 'kuru-sabhā / kaurava-sabhā': 'the Kaurava court/assembly', 'kaṭu-vacana': 'harsh/bitter speech

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• Kunti
• Pandavas
• Kaurava assembly (Kaurava-sabha)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A breach of dharma is portrayed as having ethical consequences: it clouds discernment (buddhi), fosters envy (īrṣyā), and leads to hostility (dveṣa) even toward the virtuous. The verse links moral lapse with degraded associations and destructive speech in public life.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya addresses a person whose birth is described as arising from a lapse of dharma (alluding to Kuntī’s premarital conception). He explains that this has led to a corrupted mindset, envy-driven hatred of the Pāṇḍavas, and repeated bitter exchanges in the Kaurava court.