Shloka 9
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 73 — Kr̥ṣṇa’s Appraisal of Bhīma’s Altered Temper and Reaffirmation of Martial Resolve
पुरा प्रसन्ना: कुरव: सहपुत्रास्तथा वयम् । इन्द्रज्येष्ठा इवा भूम मोदमाना: सबान्धवा:
purā prasannāḥ kuravaḥ sahaputrās tathā vayam | indrajyeṣṭhā iva bhūma modamānāḥ sabāndhavāḥ ||
Bhīma erinnert sich an eine frühere Zeit, als die Kurus mitsamt ihren Söhnen und auch wir alle zufrieden und einträchtig waren—wie die Götter mit Indra als dem Ersten—und in Einheit mit allen Verwandten jubelten. Die Zeile ruft den ethischen Gegensatz zwischen einstiger Familienharmonie und dem heutigen Zerfall des Verwandtschafts-Dharma hervor, der in den Konflikt führt.
भीम उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral tragedy of a family’s fall from harmony into hostility: when kinship and shared joy are abandoned, adharma grows and war becomes thinkable. Remembering past concord functions as an ethical indictment of present choices.
Bhima is speaking and recalling an earlier period when both branches of the Kuru family lived happily together with their relatives, comparing that unity to the gods rejoicing under Indra’s leadership—implicitly contrasting it with the current rupture that is driving events toward war.