Shloka 8

Vyādha–Brāhmaṇa Saṃvāda: Śāpa, Vṛtta-Dharma, and Counsel Against Viṣāda

Grief

Devanagari script

मातापित्रोश्व शुश्रूषा स्त्रीणां भर्तरि च द्विज । स्त्रीणां धर्मात्‌ सुघोराद्धि नान्‍्यं पश्यामि दुष्करम्‌,“ब्रह्मन! पुत्रोंद्वारा माता-पिताकी सेवा तथा स्त्रियोंद्वारा की हुई पतिकी सेवा बहुत कठिन है। स्त्रियोंक इस कठोर धर्मसे बढ़कर और कोई दुष्कर कार्य मुझे नहीं दिखायी देता है

Transliteration

vaiśampāyana uvāca |

mātāpitror hi śuśrūṣā strīṇāṁ bhartari ca dvija |

strīṇāṁ dharmāt sughorād dhi nānyaṁ paśyāmi duṣkaram ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana thưa: “Bạch vị Bà-la-môn, việc con cái phụng dưỡng cha mẹ, cũng như việc người vợ tận tụy phụng sự chồng, quả thật là nhọc nhằn. Ta không thấy có công việc nào khó hơn bổn phận nghiêm khắc này đặt lên vai người phụ nữ.”

Word by Word

• {'vaiśampāyana uvāca': 'Vaiśampāyana said', 'mātāpitror': 'of mother and father (dual genitive)', 'hi': 'indeed, surely', 'śuśrūṣā': 'service, attentive attendance, devoted care', 'strīṇām': 'of women', 'bhartari': 'in/unto the husband

• toward the husband (locative)', 'ca': 'and', 'dvija': 'O twice-born

• a brāhmaṇa (vocative address)', 'dharma': 'duty, righteous obligation, normative conduct', 'sughorāt': "very terrible/harsh/severe (ablative: 'than the very severe')", 'dhi': 'indeed (emphatic particle)', 'nānyam': 'no other', 'paśyāmi': 'I see, I perceive', 'duṣkaram': 'difficult to do

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• dvija (a brāhmaṇa addressee)
• mother
• father
• women
• husband

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights dharma as lived responsibility: devoted service to parents and, in the traditional framework, a wife’s steadfast care for her husband are portrayed as among the most demanding ethical disciplines, requiring endurance, self-control, and constancy.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana, continuing his narration, addresses a brāhmaṇa and comments on the difficulty of household duties—especially the severe obligations associated with women’s dharma—framing them as arduous moral work rather than merely social convention.