Shloka 27

Devanagari script

भुक्तपूर्वा स्त्रियं ये च विन्दतामघशंसिनाम्‌ | ब्रह्मघ्नानां च ये लोका ये च गोघातिनामपि

Transliteration

bhuktapūrvā striyaṁ ye ca vindatām aghaśaṁsinām | brahmaghnānāṁ ca ye lokā ye ca goghātinām api

Translation

Arjuna said: “May those who commit cruel and sinful deeds meet the same fate as the gravest offenders: may they be forced to take as their lot a woman already enjoyed by another; and may they attain the worlds destined for slayers of Brahmins and for killers of cows as well.”

Word by Word

भुक्तपूर्वाःhaving previously enjoyed (i.e., having had intercourse before)

स्त्रियम्a woman

येwho

चand

विन्दताम्may they obtain / let them obtain

अघशंसिनाम्of evil-speakers / of those who utter evil (curses/slanders)

ब्रह्मघ्नानाम्of brahmin-slayers

चand

येwhich / those (worlds) that

लोकाःworlds (realms)

येwhich / those (worlds) that

चand

गोघातिनाम्of cow-slayers

अपिalso / even

Speaker

अजुन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Arjuna

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames certain acts as extreme adharma and invokes the idea that perpetrators should fall into the same dreadful moral category as Brahmin-slayers and cow-killers, emphasizing that grave wrongdoing leads to correspondingly grave karmic and post-mortem consequences.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the heat of the Drona-parvan conflict, Arjuna voices a fierce denunciation of cruel wrongdoers, expressing a wish that they suffer the harshest fates—socially (dishonour and violation of rightful relations) and spiritually (hellish realms associated with major sins).