Shloka 43
शल्यस्य सेनापत्याभ्युपगमः | Śalya’s Acceptance of Command
तैः स्वयं रचितो मार्गों दुर्गमो हि पुनर्भवेत् सम्पतद्धिमहावेगैर्यास्यद्धिरिह सद्गतिम्,“उन वीरोंने स्वयं ही जिस मार्गका निर्माण किया है, वह पुनः बड़े वेगसे सदगतिको जानेवाले बहुसंख्यक वीरोंद्वारा दुर्गण हो जाय (अर्थात् इतने अधिक वीर उस मार्गसे यात्रा करें कि भीड़के मारे उसपर चलना कठिन हो जाय)
taiḥ svayaṃ racito mārgo durgamo hi punar bhavet | sampatadbhir mahāvegair yāsyadbhir iha sadgatiṃ ||
“The path those heroes have themselves fashioned may again become hard to traverse—crowded and difficult—because of the multitude of warriors, rushing with great speed, who now set out along it toward the ‘good course’, the noble destiny won by heroic death.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames heroic death in battle as a ‘path’ leading to sadgati (a noble destiny), while also hinting at the sheer scale of slaughter: so many warriors pursue that end that the very path becomes metaphorically congested and difficult—an ethical reflection on the mass momentum of war.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, comments that the route to a noble end—created by the valor of earlier heroes—will be made ‘hard to traverse’ again because countless warriors are now rushing toward that same fate amid the ongoing carnage.