Shloka 55
Śaineya’s Breakthrough and Reunion with Arjuna (शैनेयस्य समागमः)
न हि ते सुकृतं किंचिदादौ मध्ये च भारत । दृश्यते पृष्ठतश्चैव त्वन्मूलो हि पराजय:,भारत! मुझे तो आगे, पीछे या बीचमें आपका कोई भी शुभ कर्म नहीं दिखायी देता। इस पराजयकी जड़ आप ही हैं
na hi te sukṛtaṃ kiñcid ādau madhye ca bhārata | dṛśyate pṛṣṭhataś caiva tvanmūlo hi parājayaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “O Bhārata, I see no meritorious deed of yours—neither at the beginning, nor in the middle, nor at the end. Indeed, this defeat has its very root in you.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral responsibility cannot be shifted: when a ruler repeatedly fails to choose righteous action, the eventual collapse is traced back to that foundational negligence. The verse frames defeat as the fruit of sustained ethical failure, not mere battlefield chance.
Sañjaya, reporting events to the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra, delivers a blunt judgment: throughout the course of the conflict, he finds no sign of the king’s meritorious, corrective action. He therefore declares that the Kauravas’ defeat is ultimately rooted in Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s own choices and omissions.