Mahabharata 7.186.55 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 186, Shloka 55
यथा चन्द्रोदयोद्धूत: क्षुभितः सागरो5भवत् | तथा चन्द्रोदयोद्धूत: स बभूव बलार्णव:
sañjaya uvāca | yathā candrodayoddhūtaḥ kṣubhitaḥ sāgaro 'bhavat | tathā candrodayoddhūtaḥ sa babhūva balārṇavaḥ |
Sañjaya said: “Just as the ocean, stirred by the rising of the moon, swells into agitation, so too, at that moment, the vast ocean of armies—roused as though by moonrise—was thrown into tumult.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how external conditions can rapidly inflame collective emotion: like tides responding to the moon, armies can surge into agitation when a triggering sign or moment arrives—an ethical reminder to recognize and govern mass impulse amid war.
Sanjaya describes the battlefield mood: with the moon’s rising, the assembled forces are compared to an ocean whose waters heave under lunar influence, indicating a sudden, widespread stirring and unrest across the host.
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