Shloka 18
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament for Karṇa and Renunciation-Oriented Self-Assessment (शोक-प्रलापः / त्याग-प्रवृत्तिः)
पितृभ्यो देवताभ्यश्व गता वैवस्वतक्षयम्
pitṛbhyo devatābhyaś ca gatā vaivasvatakṣayam; parantu teṣāṃ udyogaḥ sarvathā niṣphalaḥ saṃvṛttaḥ, yataḥ asmābhiḥ tāḥ sarvā mātaraḥ—yeṣāṃ navayuvakāḥ putrāḥ viśuddha-suvarṇamaya-kuṇḍalaiḥ alaṅkṛtāḥ—hatāḥ. te iha-lokasya bhogān anubhavituṃ avasaraṃ na prāpya, devatṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca pitṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca anapākṛtyaiva yama-lokaṃ gatāḥ.
尤提士提罗说道：“他们已去往毗婆斯瓦特之所——阎摩的国度；然而为诸天与祖灵所作的一切努力，竟全然成了徒劳。因为我们杀死了那些母亲们尚且年少的儿子，他们耳饰皆以纯金铸成，光辉夺目。未曾得享此世应得的福乐，也未能偿还对诸天与先祖的债，他们便已离开人间，赴往阎摩之界。”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames war-death as an ethical rupture: young men die before fulfilling life’s dharmic obligations—especially debts to gods and ancestors—so even well-meant ritual or social efforts become ‘fruitless’ when the lineage and its duties are cut off by violence.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Yudhiṣṭhira laments that many youths—adorned and in their prime—have been killed by their side, and thus have gone to Yama’s realm without enjoying worldly life or repaying obligations to gods and forefathers, intensifying his sense of culpability and sorrow.