Shloka 143
Droṇa’s Renewed Advance toward Yudhiṣṭhira; Fall of Satyajit and Allied Recoil (द्रोणस्य युधिष्ठिरप्रेप्सा—सत्यजितः पतनम्)
वातोद्धूतार्णवाकार: प्रवृत्त इव लक्ष्यते । इस प्रकार पैदल, अश्वारोही, गजारोही तथा रथियोंद्वारा आचार्य द्रोणका बनाया हुआ वह व्यूह वायुके झकोरोंसे उछलते हुए समुद्रके समान दिखायी देता था
vāto-ddhūtārṇavākāraḥ pravṛtta iva lakṣyate |
Sañjaya said: The battle-formation devised by Ācārya Droṇa—thronged with foot-soldiers, horsemen, elephant-riders, and chariot-warriors—appeared like an ocean stirred up by violent gusts of wind, heaving and surging in restless motion.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses the ocean-in-a-gale metaphor to highlight how organized violence and strategic formations can become a vast, uncontrollable force; it implicitly calls for inner steadiness and ethical discernment (dharma) even when the battlefield’s momentum feels overwhelming.
Sañjaya describes to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the formidable battle-array constructed by Droṇa, packed with multiple arms of the army (infantry, cavalry, elephants, chariots), and says it looks like a wind-tossed ocean—surging, turbulent, and daunting to behold.