Shloka 18
Ālasyadoṣa-nirdeśa (On the Fault of Negligence) — The Camel’s Long-Neck Exemplum
बुद्धिश्रेष्ठानि कर्माणि बाहुमध्यानि भारत । तानि जड्घाजघन्यानि भारप्रत्यवराणि च
buddhiśreṣṭhāni karmāṇi bāhumadhyāni bhārata | tāni jaḍghājaghanyāni bhārapratyavarāṇi ca ||
Uḍḍa nói: “Hỡi Bhārata, việc làm thành tựu nhờ trí tuệ là cao nhất. Việc làm nhờ sức cánh tay là bậc trung. Việc làm bằng sức đùi (tức sức chân) là hèn; còn gánh nặng trên đầu là thấp kém nhất trong tất cả.”
उड्ड उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse ranks human effort by the faculty employed: intellect-led action is praised as highest, mere physical force as middling, and increasingly menial bodily exertion as lower—highlighting an ethical preference for discernment, planning, and wise agency over brute or servile labor.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, the speaker Uḍḍa delivers a moral classification of actions to the addressed ‘Bhārata,’ using a graded comparison (intellect, arms, legs, head-burden) to instruct on values and social-ethical evaluation of work.