को हि नाम पुमांल् लोके मर्षयिष्यति सत्त्ववान् ॥
सपत्नान् ऋध्यतो दृष्ट्वा हानिम् आत्मन एव च ॥
सो ऽहं न स्त्री न चाप्य् अस्त्री न पुमान् नापुमान् अपि ॥
यो ऽहं तां मर्षयाम्य् अद्य तादृशीं श्रियम् आगताम् ॥
ईश्वरत्वं पृथिव्याश् च वसुमत्तां च तादृशीम् ॥
यज्ञं च तादृशं दृष्ट्वा मादृशः को न संज्वरेत् ॥
ko hi nāma pumāṃl loke marṣayiṣyati sattvavān ||
sapatnān ṛdhyato dṛṣṭvā hānim ātmana eva ca ||
so 'haṃ na strī na cāpy astrī na pumān nāpumān api ||
yo 'haṃ tāṃ marṣayāmy adya tādṛśīṃ śriyam āgatām ||
īśvaratvaṃ pṛthivyāś ca vasumattāṃ ca tādṛśīm ||
yajñaṃ ca tādṛśaṃ dṛṣṭvā mādṛśaḥ ko na saṃjvaret ||
"For what man in the world, possessed of strength of spirit, could bear to see his rivals prosper while he himself declines? I am neither wife nor non-wife, neither husband nor non-husband, if I now bear such splendor that has come to them. Having seen their lordship over the earth, such wealth, and such a sacrifice, who like me would not burn with fever?"
7e2d2bd6b3f7 · published Jul 16, 2026, 3:49:22 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Duryodhana turns his envy into a virtue: as if bearing another's good fortune were a mark of unmanliness. It is telling how he inverts the true measure — what is in fact greatness of spirit, to rejoice in another's welfare, he brands as weakness, while passing off his own insatiable malice as manly honor. The verse teaches how cunningly passion justifies itself: vice dresses itself in the garments of virtue, and intolerance calls itself dignity. And the standard "a real man will not endure it" is false at its root: true strength lies not in the inability to bear another's happiness but in the capacity to rejoice in it. Whoever calls envy manliness has already been conquered by it, and calls his own bondage freedom.