Mahabharata 7.194.38 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 194, Shloka 38
अहिंसां सर्वभूतेषु धर्म ज्यायस्तरं विदु: । तस्य च ब्राह्मणो मूलं भवांश्व ब्रह्मवित्तम:
sañjaya uvāca |
ahiṃsāṃ sarvabhūteṣu dharmaṃ jyāyastaraṃ viduḥ |
tasya ca brāhmaṇo mūlaṃ bhavāṃś ca brahmavittamaḥ ||
Sañjaya thưa: “Bất bạo hại đối với mọi loài hữu tình được biết là dharma tối thượng. Và cội rễ của dharma ấy chính là Bà-la-môn; còn ngài, quả thật, là bậc thông tri Brahman bậc nhất trong hàng Bà-la-môn.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse elevates ahiṃsā—non-violence toward all beings—as the highest dharma, and links its stable foundation to the Brāhmaṇa ideal: disciplined learning, restraint, and realization of Brahman. Ethical authority is grounded not merely in status but in brahma-jñāna (knowledge of Brahman).
In the midst of the war narrative of Droṇa Parva, Sañjaya addresses a revered listener and frames counsel through a moral lens: even amid battlefield events, the supreme standard of dharma is recalled, and the addressee is honored as a foremost knower of Brahman, fit to uphold and interpret that standard.
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