Shloka 52
Adhyaya 7 — Harishchandra Tested by Vishvamitra: The Gift of the Kingdom and the Pandava Curse-Backstory
पथि पांशुपरिक्लिष्टं मुखं कीदृग्भविष्यति ।
तिष्ठ तिष्ठ नृपश्रेष्ठ स्वधर्ममनुपालय ॥
pathi pāṁśu-parikliṣṭaṁ mukhaṁ kīdṛg bhaviṣyati | tiṣṭha tiṣṭha nṛpaśreṣṭha sva-dharmam anupālaya ||
“Khuôn mặt của ngài sẽ ra sao khi bị bụi đường bám bẩn? Hãy đứng vững, hãy đứng vững, hỡi bậc vương tối thượng—hãy theo giữ và bảo hộ chính pháp (dharma) của mình.”
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FAQs
The verse urges firmness in one’s rightful duty (svadharma), especially for a ruler. The image of a dust-grimed face on the road implies the humiliation and hardship of abandoning one’s station or fleeing responsibility; the counsel is to endure and govern/act according to dharma rather than be driven by fear, despair, or impulse.
This verse is primarily dharma-śikṣā (ethical instruction) within narrative, not directly one of the five (sarga, pratisarga, vaṁśa, manvantara, vaṁśānucarita). It most closely aligns with vaṁśānucarita/narrative exemplum in which moral counsel is embedded, but it is not itself a cosmological or genealogical datum.
Symbolically, “dust on the road” can signify rajas (restless passion) and the outward turbulence of saṁsāra that obscures the ‘face’ (one’s discernment/inner clarity). The emphatic ‘stand firm’ points to steadiness (sthiti) as a spiritual and ethical power: remaining established in dharma prevents the mind from being dragged into reactive flight and degradation.