Shloka 36
कृष्णेन अर्जुनस्य प्रोत्साहनम् — Kṛṣṇa’s Exhortation to Arjuna
Prelude to Karṇa’s Slaying
नृत्यन्ति वै भूतगणा: सुतृप्ता मांसशोणितै: । पीत्वा च शोणितं तत्र वसां पीत्वा च भारत
nṛtyanti vai bhūtagaṇāḥ sutṛptā māṃsaśoṇitaiḥ | pītvā ca śoṇitaṃ tatra vasāṃ pītvā ca bhārata ||
Sañjaya said: “All around, the hosts of spirits, fully sated with flesh and blood, were dancing. O Bhārata, having drunk the blood there—and having also drunk the fat—they were utterly glutted.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as an ethical indictment of war’s dehumanizing aftermath: when slaughter dominates, the world is portrayed as attracting dark, predatory forces. It warns that adharma and unchecked violence lead not to glory but to horror and moral pollution.
Sañjaya describes a gruesome battlefield scene where innumerable corpses and gore lie about, and ghastly spirit-hosts (bhūtagaṇas) are imagined as dancing, having drunk blood and fat—an ominous, terrifying depiction of the carnage.