समर तद् दुष्कृतं कर्म यद् वृत्तं वारणावते । “दुर्योधन! वारणावत नगरमें जो कुछ हुआ था, राजा धुृतराष्ट्रके और अपने भी उस कुकर्मको तू याद कर ले
samare tad duṣkṛtaṃ karma yad vṛttaṃ vāraṇāvate |
Sañjaya said: “In this battle, recall that evil deed—the wrongdoing that took place at Vāraṇāvata. Duryodhana, remember that sinful act committed there, implicating both King Dhṛtarāṣṭra and yourself.”
संजय उवाच
Wrongdoing (duṣkṛta karma) is not erased by time or power; it returns as moral and practical consequence. The verse stresses accountability—those who authorize or enable harm share in its guilt, and such adharma ripens amid the very crisis it helped create.
Sañjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, invokes the earlier Vāraṇāvata episode—where the Pāṇḍavas were targeted through a treacherous plot—as a moral reminder directed at Duryodhana. In the context of the ongoing war, the past crime is recalled as a cause and justification for the present calamity.