Shloka 62
कर्णनिधनवृत्तान्तनिवेदनम् | Reporting Karṇa’s Fall to Yudhiṣṭhira
जो मनुष्य किसी कार्यके लिये प्रतिज्ञा करके उसका प्रकारान्तरसे उपपादन करता है, वह दम्भी होनेके कारण उसका फल नहीं पाता, ऐसा मनीषी पुरुषोंका कथन है ।।
yo manuṣyaḥ kasyacit kāryasya kṛte pratijñāṃ kṛtvā tasya prakārāntareṇa upapādanaṃ karoti, sa dambhī bhūtvā tasya phalaṃ na prāpnoti—iti manīṣi-puruṣāṇāṃ vacanam || prāṇātyaye vivāhe vā sarva-jñāti-vadhātyaye | narmaṇy abhipravṛtte vā na ca prokte mṛṣā bhavet ||
风神说：“人若为某事立誓，却又以别样权宜之计来‘履行’，便得不到其果报；此等行径不过是矫饰，智者皆如此宣说。然而，当性命攸关之时，或在婚礼之际，或当全族将遭屠戮之祸迫近之时，或在戏谑玩笑之中——只要并非真正出口——虚言便不算可责。”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
A vow must be fulfilled in its true spirit; fulfilling it through a different workaround is hypocrisy and yields no merit. Yet dharma recognizes rare edge-cases where untruth is not culpable—especially to save life, protect kin from catastrophe, or in harmless jest—so long as it is not actually spoken as a deceitful assertion.
In Karṇa Parva, amid the moral pressure of war, Vāyu speaks as a moral authority, warning against performative righteousness (dambha) in keeping promises, while also stating traditional dharma-exceptions where strict truth-telling may be relaxed in extreme or socially sensitive situations.