Shloka 92
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
व्रजे वाप्यथवारण्ये यत्र सन्ति बहुश्रुता: । तत् तन्नगरमित्याहु: पार्थ तीर्थ च तद् भवेत्,कुन्तीनन्दन! व्रज (गौओंके रहनेका स्थान) हो या वन, जहाँ बहुश्रुत विद्वान् रहते हों, उसे “नगर” कहा गया है, वह तीर्थ भी माना गया है
vraje vāpy athavāraṇye yatra santi bahuśrutāḥ | tat tan nagaram ity āhuḥ pārtha tīrtha ca tad bhavet | kuntīnandana!
Yudhiṣṭhira nói: “Hỡi Pārtha, con của Kuntī, dù là trại chăn bò hay chốn rừng sâu—nơi nào có những bậc học giả uyên bác cư ngụ, nơi ấy được gọi là ‘thành’. Và nơi ấy cũng trở thành một tīrtha, bến vượt của công đức.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
A place is made ‘civilized’ and spiritually potent not by buildings or location but by the presence of learned, dharma-grounded people; their company turns even a forest or pastoral settlement into a ‘city’ and a ‘tīrtha’—a crossing-place that uplifts others.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses Arjuna (Pārtha, Kuntīnandana) and reframes the idea of sacred and urban space: wherever true learning and wise persons reside, that place deserves the status of a city and functions like a pilgrimage-site.