Shloka 100
Adhyāya 141 — Night duels: Śaineya and Bhūriśravas; Droṇi and Ghaṭotkaca; Bhīma and Duryodhana
मुनिर्भूत्वाथवा भीम फलान्यादत्स्व दुर्मते । वनाय व्रज कौन्तेय न त्वं युद्धविशारद:,“दुर्मति कुन्तीकुमार भीम! अथवा तू मुनि होकर वनमें चला जा। वहाँ इधर-उधरसे फल ले आ और खा। तू युद्धमें निपुण नहीं है
munir bhūtvā athavā bhīma phalāny ādat sva durmate | vanāya vraja kaunteya na tvaṃ yuddhaviśāradaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “O Bhīma, son of Kuntī, you foolish-minded one! If you wish, become a sage and go to the forest—there you may gather fruits from here and there and eat them. You are not skilled in the art of war.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how battlefield rhetoric uses ridicule to undermine an opponent’s kṣatriya identity: telling Bhīma to become a forest-ascetic implies abandoning warrior-dharma. Ethically, it shows the tension between true valor and the corrosive use of contempt as a weapon.
In the Drona Parva’s climactic fighting, a speaker (reported by Sañjaya) taunts Bhīma, mocking him as unfit for war and suggesting he should go to the forest to live like a sage, gathering fruits—an attempt to provoke and humiliate him in the midst of battle.