Shloka 14
अध्याय १ — न्यग्रोधवनोपवेशनम् तथा द्रौणिनिश्चयः
Night at the Banyan and Drauṇi’s Resolve
संजय! पहले समस्त भूमण्डलपर मेरी आज्ञा चलती थी और मैं सबका शिरमौर था; ऐसा होकर अब मैं दूसरोंका दास बनकर कैसे रहूँगा। मैंने स्वयं ही अपने जीवनकी अन्तिम अवस्थाको दुःखमय बना दिया है! ।।
kathaṁ bhīmasya vākyāni śrotuṁ śakṣyāmi sañjaya | yena putraśataṁ pūrṇam ekena nihataṁ mama ||
O Sañjaya! Once my command ran over the whole earth, and I stood as the crest above all; how then shall I now live as another’s servant? By my own hand I have made the last season of my life a realm of sorrow. And how, O Sañjaya, could I bear to hear the words of Bhīmasena—he who, all alone, slew my full hundred sons?
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral weight of consequences: grief is intensified when one must face the agent of one’s downfall, and it implicitly points to how adharma-driven choices (partiality, ambition, refusal to restrain wrongdoing) culminate in irreversible loss.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra catastrophe, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, speaking to Sañjaya, recoils at the prospect of hearing Bhīma’s words, because Bhīma is the warrior who single-handedly killed Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s hundred sons, making the king’s sorrow and humiliation acute.