Shloka 323

Adhyāya 41 — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Briefing and the Renewal of the Great Engagement

Devanagari script

उपसर्गाद्‌ बहुधा सूदतेश्व प्रायेण सर्व त्वयि तच्च महाम्‌ । “शद्‌ शास, शो, शू, श्वस्‌ अथवा षद्‌ तथा नाना प्रकारके उपसर्गोंसे युक्त सूद* धातुसे भी शत्रु शब्दकी सिद्धि होती है। मेरे प्रति इन सभी धातुओंका सारा तात्पर्य तुममें संघटित होता है

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca | upasargād bahudhā sūdateśva prāyeṇa sarva tvayi tac ca mahām | ṣaḍ śāsa, śo, śū, śvas athavā ṣaḍ tathā nānā-prakārake upasargaiḥ yukta sūd-dhātose’pi śatru-śabdasya siddhir bhavati | mama prati etāsu sarvāsu dhātuṣu sarva-tātparyaṁ tum̐me saṅghaṭitaṁ bhavati |

Translation

সঞ্জয়ে ক’লে—উপসৰ্গৰ বলত ‘শত্ৰু’ শব্দৰ অৰ্থ নানাভাৱে সিদ্ধ হয়; নানান উপসৰ্গযুক্ত ‘সূদ্’ ধাতুৰ পৰাও সাধাৰণতে তাৰ ব্যুৎপত্তি ধৰা হয়। কিন্তু, মহামনা, মোৰ প্ৰতি সেই শব্দৰ সকলো অৰ্থ-ছায়া যেন তোমাৰ ভিতৰতে একত্ৰিত হয়; ‘শত্ৰু’ শব্দে যি যি ভাব সূচাব পাৰে, তাৰ পূৰ্ণ তাৎপৰ্য মোৰ দৃষ্টিত তোমাৰ মাজতেই মূৰ্ত।

Word by Word

उपसर्गात्from a preverb/prefix

बहुधाin many ways

सूदतेषुamong/with respect to the (forms/usages of) 'sūda'

प्रायेणgenerally, for the most part

सर्वम्all, the whole (thing)

त्वयिin you

तत्that

महाम्great (f.)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how language can gather many nuanced meanings—here, the idea of ‘enemy’—and how, in a moral and emotional context, those nuances can be felt as fully realized in a particular person. It underscores the ethical weight of enmity: hostility is not merely a label but a convergence of intentions and actions.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya speaks in a reflective, rhetorically charged way, invoking grammatical/derivational reasoning about how the word ‘enemy’ can be formed. He then applies that layered meaning to a personal relationship, implying that the full sense of antagonism is, for him, concentrated in the addressed ‘great one’.