Shloka 60
और परस्पर कहने लगे--“इस ब्राह्मणने निश्चय ही कोई बड़ी भारी दुष्कर तपस्या की है, तभी तो यह युद्धमें अत्यन्त क़ुद्ध होकर श्रेष्ठ क्षत्रियोंको दग्ध कर रहा है ।। धर्मो युद्ध क्षत्रियस्य ब्राह्मणस्य परं॑ तप: । तपस्वी कृतविद्यश्ष प्रेक्षितेनापि निर्देहित्,'युद्ध करना तो क्षत्रियका धर्म है। तप करना ही ब्राह्मणका उत्तम धर्म माना गया है। यह तपस्वी और अस्त्रविद्याका दिद्वान् ब्राह्मण अपने दृष्टिपातमात्रसे दग्ध कर सकता है!
sañjaya uvāca — atha parasparaṁ ūcuḥ— “ayaṁ brāhmaṇaḥ niścayaṁ kaścid mahāntaṁ duṣkaraṁ tapaḥ kṛtavān; tenaiva yuddhe ’tyantaṁ kruddhaḥ śreṣṭhān kṣatriyān dagdhavān iva. dharmo yuddhaṁ kṣatriyasya, brāhmaṇasya paraṁ tapaḥ. ayaṁ tapasvī kṛtavidyaś ca brāhmaṇaḥ prekṣitena api nirdahet.”
Sañjaya said: Then they began saying to one another, “Surely this brahmin has performed some great and arduous austerity; that is why, in the battle, blazing with anger, he is burning up the finest kṣatriyas. Fighting is the kṣatriya’s duty, but austerity is held to be the brahmin’s highest calling. Yet this brahmin—an ascetic and a master of weapon-lore—can incinerate even with a mere glance.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts role-based dharma: warfare is the kṣatriya’s duty, while tapas (austerity) is the brahmin’s highest duty. Yet it highlights how spiritual discipline and mastery of knowledge can produce formidable power—even within the arena of war—raising ethical tension about how such power is used.
Observers in the battlefield, as reported by Sañjaya, marvel at a brahmin who is fighting with extraordinary fury and effectiveness. They infer that such destructive prowess must be rooted in severe austerity and deep training in weapon-science, to the point that he is imagined to burn foes even by a glance.