Mahabharata 1:A Thief As If Has Stolen Your Soul Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

He that who he's well understands
And still as someone else pretends,
A thief with his soul abducted,
What sin he caps not on his head?
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This series of translations from Mahabharata deals with selected verses on philosophy of life.
Truthfulness is a key aspect of morality and holistic conduct. This verse tells us that he with his soul vigilant should not tell a lie. It is only possible if his soul is abducted. Here is the transliteration of the original verse:

yah anyathā santam ātmānamanyathā pratipadyate |
kim tenana kŗtam pāpamchaureņa ātmā apahāriņā || ādi 74-27 ||

A brief background of the story line is given hereunder:
The story of Shakuntala and king Dushyanta is too well-known to repeat. The two met at her ashram when her sage foster father was away, got married in a gandharva lagna (secret marriage by mutual consent) . The marriage was consummated and the king left giving her a royal ring. In course of time she gave birth to their son (Bharata) . But the king seemed to have forgotten all about it, and the promised call from him never came. The sage decided to send her with the child to the king accompanied by a few ashram hands.

On reaching the palace she, along with her son, presented herself to the king, but he seemed unable to recognise her even after she recalled the events ending with their marriage. Instead, he ridiculed not only her but also her father sage Vishvamitra and mother Menaka. Unable to take it any more, she tells the king forthwith that he was lying.

Yet, the truth was: Shakuntala loved the king; so also the king loved her. She seems here to have realised that the king in fact knew the truth, and still pretended otherwise. And she was right. In this case the king pretended because he wanted his people to know the truth from elsewhere, not from him, from the point of view of credibility.