यथाशक्ति चिकीर्षन्ति यथाशक्ति च कुर्वते ।
न किञ्चिदवमन्यन्ति नराः पण्डितबुद्धयः ॥ 1-26
yathA-shakti chikIrShanti, yathA-shakti cha kurvate |
na kinchidavamanyanti, narAH paNDita-buddhayaH ||
this is 26th shloka from chapter 1 of vidura-neeti, an excellent, stand alone section of the grand epic mahAbhArata. in this the great emperor dhRitarAShTra - whose sons were the villains making life miserable for their cousins pANDavas - is extremely restless about tomorrow's court appearance of the messenger, sanjaya, who brought the message from pANDava side.
a disturbed emperor calls for his wise minister and brother vidura at late hours and asks for words of wisdom regarding dharma (right conduct) and artha (politics).
the wise vidura bares all his wisdom for the benefit of the emperor, but sadly, to no avail, as the deadly war does take place.
