Shloka 39
भीष्मरथाभिमुख्यं — Arjuna’s advance with Śikhaṇḍin; Duḥśāsana’s interception
प्राक्रोशन् क्षत्रियास्तत्र दृष्टवा तद् वैशसं महत् । दुर्योधनापराधेन गच्छन्ति क्षत्रिया: क्षयम्,वहाँ खड़े हुए क्षत्रिय वह अत्यन्त भयंकर मारकाट देखकर यह पुकार-पुकारकर कह रहे थे कि दुर्योधनके अपराधसे ही सारे क्षत्रिय विनाशको प्राप्त हो रहे हैं
prākrośan kṣatriyās tatra dṛṣṭvā tad vaiśasaṁ mahat | duryodhanāparādhena gacchanti kṣatriyāḥ kṣayam ||
Sañjaya said: “There the kṣatriyas, seeing that immense and dreadful slaughter, cried out aloud again and again: ‘Because of Duryodhana’s wrongdoing, the kṣatriya host is being driven to destruction.’”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights moral causality in public catastrophe: when a leader persists in wrongdoing (aparādha), the consequences spread beyond the individual, bringing collective ruin—here, the destruction of the kṣatriyas in war.
On the battlefield, warriors witness an overwhelming massacre and cry out that the ongoing destruction is occurring because of Duryodhana’s fault—an explicit attribution of the war’s devastation to his culpable choices.