विदुर उवाच
कश्यपस्य वचः श्रुत्वा प्रह्लादः पुत्रम् अब्रवीत् ॥
श्रेयान् सुधन्वा त्वत्तो वै मत्तः श्रेयांस् तथाङ्गिराः ॥
माता सुधन्वनश् चापि श्रेयसी मातृतस् तव ॥
विरोचन सुधन्वायं प्राणानाम् ईश्वरस् तव ॥
सुधन्वोवाच
पुत्रस्नेहं परित्यज्य यस् त्वं धर्मे प्रतिष्ठितः ॥
अनुजानामि ते पुत्रं जीवत्व् एष शतं समाः ॥
विदुर उवाच
एवं वै परमं धर्मं श्रुत्वा सर्वे सभासदः ॥
यथाप्रश्नं तु कृष्णाया मन्यध्वं तत्र किं परम् ॥
वैशंपायन उवाच
विदुरस्य वचः श्रुत्वा नोचुः किं चन पार्थिवाः ॥
कर्णो दुःशासनं त्व् आह कृष्णां दासीं गृहान् नय ॥
तां वेपमानां सव्रीडां प्रलपन्तीं स्म पाण्डवान् ॥
दुःशासनः सभामध्ये विचकर्ष तपस्विनीम् ॥
vidura uvāca
kaśyapasya vacaḥ śrutvā prahlādaḥ putram abravīt ||
śreyān sudhanvā tvatto vai mattaḥ śreyāṃs tathāṅgirāḥ ||
mātā sudhanvanaś cāpi śreyasī mātṛtas tava ||
virocana sudhanvāyaṃ prāṇānām īśvaras tava ||
sudhanvovāca
putrasnehaṃ parityajya yas tvaṃ dharme pratiṣṭhitaḥ ||
anujānāmi te putraṃ jīvatv eṣa śataṃ samāḥ ||
vidura uvāca
evaṃ vai paramaṃ dharmaṃ śrutvā sarve sabhāsadaḥ ||
yathāpraśnaṃ tu kṛṣṇāyā manyadhvaṃ tatra kiṃ param ||
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca
vidurasya vacaḥ śrutvā nocuḥ kiṃ cana pārthivāḥ ||
karṇo duḥśāsanaṃ tv āha kṛṣṇāṃ dāsīṃ gṛhān naya ||
tāṃ vepamānāṃ savrīḍāṃ pralapantīṃ sma pāṇḍavān ||
duḥśāsanaḥ sabhāmadhye vicakarṣa tapasvinīm ||
[Vidura continues:] Having heard Kashyapa's words, Prahlada said to his son: 'Sudhanvan is worthier than you, and Angiras is worthier than I; and Sudhanvan's mother is worthier than your mother; therefore, Virochana, this Sudhanvan is the lord of your life.' [And Sudhanvan said:] 'Since you, forsaking love for your son, have stood firm in dharma, I grant you your son: may he live a hundred years.' [And Vidura concluded:] 'Having thus heard the highest dharma, judge now, you who sit in this assembly, what is paramount in Krishna's question.' But, having heard Vidura's words, the lords of the earth said nothing at all. And Karna said to Duhshasana: 'Take the slave-girl Krishna to the inner chambers.' And her, trembling, ashamed, crying out to the Pandavas, Duhshasana dragged through the midst of the assembly -- her, the ascetic woman.
88fb5c26270a · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:12:36 PM UTC
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The parable is crowned with its highest point: Prahlada, the father of devotion, speaks truth against his own son -- and thereby saves him, for Sudhanvan grants life in return for truth. Here a law contrary to worldly calculation reveals itself: whoever places dharma above blood brings good even to his own kin; fidelity to truth heals rather than destroys. Vidura holds up this mirror before the Kauravas -- but unlike Prahlada, they find in themselves no strength to speak the truth against their own, and their silence is the blacker for having just heard what it portends. And at once, upon that silence, a fresh outrage follows: Karna calls the queen a 'slave-girl' and orders her dragged away. The verse teaches that rejected truth does not go without consequence: where the assembly falls silent, evil at once stretches its hand further; the word 'ascetic woman,' at the very hour of her being dragged, preserves the memory that she who is dragged is no slave but the purest of women, and the outrage will fall back upon those who commit it.