सभासद ऊचुः
अहो धिग् बान्धवा नैनं बोधयन्ति महद् भयम् ॥
बुद्ध्या बोध्यं न बुध्यन्ते स्वयं च भरतर्षभाः ॥
वैशंपायन उवाच
जनप्रवादान् सुबहून् इति शृण्वन् नराधिपः ॥
ह्रिया च धर्मसङ्गाच् च पार्थो द्यूतम् इयात् पुनः ॥
जानन्न् अपि महाबुद्धिः पुनर्द्यूतम् अवर्तयत् ॥
अप्य् अयं न विनाशः स्यात् कुरूणाम् इति चिन्तयन् ॥
sabhāsada ūcuḥ
aho dhig bāndhavā nainaṃ bodhayanti mahad bhayam ||
buddhyā bodhyaṃ na budhyante svayaṃ ca bharatarṣabhāḥ ||
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca
janapravādān subahūn iti śṛṇvan narādhipaḥ ||
hriyā ca dharmasaṅgāc ca pārtho dyūtam iyāt punaḥ ||
jānann api mahābuddhiḥ punardyūtam avartayat ||
apy ayaṃ na vināśaḥ syāt kurūṇām iti cintayan ||
"Alas, shame! His kinsmen do not awaken him to the great danger; and they themselves do not grasp what reason could grasp, O bulls among the Bharatas!" Hearing many such rumors among the people, the lord of men — from shame and from attachment to dharma — Pārtha went to the game once more. Though he knew, the wise one resumed the game, thinking: "May this not become the ruin of the Kurus."
d97b2707736c · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:12:36 PM UTC
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Yudhiṣṭhira's final motive is remarkable: he returns to the game not from passion for gambling nor from pride, but thinking "may this not be the ruin of the Kurus" — that is, he sacrifices himself for the very kin who are destroying him. Here the self-sacrifice of the righteous man reveals itself, ready to accept even an unjust outcome, only so that he himself would not become the cause of discord. Yet in this self-abnegation there is also the bitterness of error: to have avoided the trap would not have been a fault, and shame before public opinion is an unreliable counselor. The verse teaches that even the feat of self-renunciation needs the light of discernment; that care for peace does not require handing over to injustice what does not belong to it; and that the noblest intention, not free of false shame, can turn into an instrument of the very calamity it wished to avert.