Shloka 43
Droṇa’s Conditional Boon: The Plan to Capture Yudhiṣṭhira (द्रोणेन युधिष्ठिरग्रहणोपायः)
युगस्येव विपर्यासो लोकानामिव मोहनम्
yugasy eva viparyāso lokānām iva mohanam
Vaiśampāyana said: “It was as though the very order of the age had been overturned—an enchantment that bewildered the people. In that moment, what should have been clear became confused, and the world seemed seized by delusion, as if dharma and right judgment were eclipsed by the upheaval of war.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how extreme violence and collective passion can invert moral and social order: discernment (viveka) is clouded, and people fall into moha (delusion). It warns that when dharma is obscured, society experiences a yuga-like reversal where right and wrong appear confused.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, describes the battlefield situation in Drona Parva as producing a world-upending effect—events unfold with such intensity that it feels like an age has turned upside down, leaving people stunned and bewildered.