Verse 1

¹So the Bhagavan's messengers, taking in what Yama's messengers had said, answered them, king, being men who know what is right. ²How grievous, that wrongdoing should touch the court of those who look to dharma, where punishment is laid without cause on the blameless, who should not be punished. ³Those who are fathers to the people, and rulers, and good, and even-handed: if there were unevenness in them, where would the people go for shelter? ⁴Whatever a better man does, the rest set about doing; and whatever measure he takes as his own, the world follows it. ⁵The world lays its head in his lap and sleeps at ease, and does not itself know dharma from wrongdoing, any more than an animal does.

⁶How is one whom living beings can trust, one with pity in him, fit to do harm to a man who has given himself over, who has made friends with him, and who is out of his wits?