Shloka 76
कृच्छान् दुर्योधनो लोकान् पाप: प्राप्स्यति दुर्मति: । यस्य लोभाद् विनिहता: समरे क्षत्रियर्षभा:,'दुर्बुद्धि पापी दुर्योधन अत्यन्त कष्टप्रद लोकोंमें जायगा, जिसके लोभसे इस समरांगणमें बहुत-से क्षत्रियशिरोमणि वीर मारे गये हैं
kṛcchrān duryodhano lokān pāpaḥ prāpsyati durmatiḥ | yasya lobhād vinihatāḥ samare kṣatriyarṣabhāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: The sinful, evil-minded Duryodhana will attain worlds of extreme hardship, for through whose greed many bull-like heroes among the kṣatriyas have been slain in this battle. The verse frames the war’s devastation as the moral consequence of unchecked covetousness, assigning ethical responsibility to the instigator whose desire overrode dharma.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that lobha (greed) is a dharma-destroying force: when a leader’s covetousness drives collective violence, he incurs grave moral culpability and is destined for painful realms. It links ethical causation (greed → slaughter) with karmic consequence (hardship-filled lokas).
Sañjaya, narrating the Kurukṣetra war to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, comments on Duryodhana’s moral trajectory. He declares that because Duryodhana’s greed has led to the deaths of many foremost kṣatriya warriors in the battle, Duryodhana will meet a dreadful post-war/post-mortem fate in harsh realms.