Shloka 176
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
यदाश्रौषं कर्णदुर्योधनाभ्यां बुद्धि कृतां निग्रहे केशवस्य । त॑ चात्मानं बहुधा दर्शयानं तदा नाशंसे विजयाय संजय,संजय! जब मैंने सुना कि कर्ण और दुर्योधन दोनोंने यह सलाह की है कि श्रीकृष्णको कैद कर लिया जाय और श्रीकृष्णने अपने-आपको अनेक रूपोंमें विराट् या अखिल विश्वके रूपमें दिखा दिया, तभीसे मैंने विजयाशा त्याग दी थी
yadāśrauṣaṃ karṇa-duryodhanābhyāṃ buddhiṃ kṛtāṃ nigrahe keśavasya | taṃ cātmānaṃ bahudhā darśayānaṃ tadā nāśaṃse vijayāya saṃjaya ||
Sañjaya, when I heard that Karṇa and Duryodhana had devised a plan to seize Keśava (Kṛṣṇa), and then saw Him reveal Himself in many forms—unfolding the vast, all-encompassing vision of the cosmos—at that very moment I abandoned all hope of victory. The resolve to violate dharma by imprisoning a divine envoy, met by the disclosure of Kṛṣṇa’s immeasurable power, made the moral and strategic outcome unmistakable.