Mahabharata 7.175.33 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 175, Shloka 33
नैनं शक्ष्यामि संसोढुं चरन्तं रणमूर्थनि । प्रत्यक्ष वृष्णिशार्दूल पादस्पर्शमिवोरग:
nainaṁ śakṣyāmi saṁsoḍhuṁ carantaṁ raṇamūrdhani | pratyakṣaṁ vṛṣṇiśārdūla pādasparśam ivoragaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “O tiger among the Vṛṣṇis, I cannot bear to see him moving about on the very forefront of the battlefield before my eyes—just as a serpent cannot endure the touch of a man’s foot.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral-psychological strain of witnessing destructive prowess in war: even a truthful narrator like Sañjaya confesses an inability to ‘bear’ what he sees, using a vivid simile to convey how intolerable certain sights become when adharma and slaughter intensify.
Sañjaya addresses Kṛṣṇa (as ‘Vṛṣṇiśārdūla’) and says he cannot endure seeing the warrior (understood as Karṇa in this context) roaming at the very front of the battle in plain view, comparing his reaction to a serpent’s inability to tolerate the touch of a foot.
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