किं नु दुःखतरं शक्यं मया द्रष्टुम् अतः परम् ॥
यो ऽहम् अद्य नरव्याघ्रान् सुप्तान् पश्यामि भूतले ॥
त्रिषु लोकेषु यद् राज्यं धर्मविद्यो ऽर्हते नृपः ॥
सो ऽयं भूमौ परिश्रान्तः शेते प्राकृतवत् कथम् ॥
अयं नीलाम्बुदश्यामो नरेष्व् अप्रतिमो भुवि ॥
शेते प्राकृतवद् भूमाव् अतो दुःखतरं नु किम् ॥
अश्विनाव् इव देवानां याव् इमौ रूपसंपदा ॥
तौ प्राकृतवद् अद्येमौ प्रसुप्तौ धरणीतले ॥
kiṃ nu duḥkhataraṃ śakyaṃ mayā draṣṭum ataḥ param ||
yo 'ham adya naravyāghrān suptān paśyāmi bhūtale ||
triṣu lokeṣu yad rājyaṃ dharmavidyo 'rhate nṛpaḥ ||
so 'yaṃ bhūmau pariśrāntaḥ śete prākṛtavat katham ||
ayaṃ nīlāmbudaśyāmo nareṣv apratimo bhuvi ||
śete prākṛtavad bhūmāv ato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim ||
aśvināv iva devānāṃ yāv imau rūpasaṃpadā ||
tau prākṛtavad adyemau prasuptau dharaṇītale ||
Bhima said: "What more painful than this could I possibly see, than what I now see — tigers among men sleeping on the ground? That king, the knower of dharma, who deserves a kingdom in the three worlds — here he, worn out, sleeps on the ground like a common man; how can this be? This one, dark as a blue rain-cloud, unrivaled among men on earth, sleeps like a common man — what could be more painful than this? These two, who in beauty are like the Ashvins among the gods — here they now, like common men, sleep on the bare ground."
f65e397d69a3 · published Jul 12, 2026, 5:03:09 PM UTC
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Here Bhima mourns the humiliation of the most worthy. It is telling that what pains him most is seeing Yudhishthira — "deserving of a kingdom in the three worlds" — asleep on the ground like a common man: the injustice of fate toward the righteous wounds him more sharply than his own deprivation. Here is compassion, aching with another's pain before its own. Telling too is the bewilderment of "how can this be?": a mind accustomed to visible justice cannot grasp why the best should suffer the worst. Here is the age-old question of the suffering of the righteous — and its resolution lies in this: outward humiliation does not diminish inward dignity. Yudhishthira on the bare ground is no less the king of dharma than on a throne. Scripture thus shows that the greatness of the righteous lies not in couch or crown but in the man himself, and so misfortune cannot take it from him.