Shloka 52
केशव! जिनके पति, पुत्र और संरक्षक मार दिये गये होंगे, वे धृतराष्ट्रके पुत्रों और पौत्रोंकी बहुएँ जब गान्धारीके साथ एकत्र होकर कुत्तों, गीधों और कुरर पक्षियोंसे भरे हुए समरांगणमें रोती हुई विचरेंगी, जनार्दन! वही उस यज्ञका अवभृथस्नान होगा ।। विद्यावृद्धा वयोवृद्धा: क्षत्रिया: क्षत्रियर्षभ । वृथा मृत्युं न कुर्वीरिस्त्वत्कृते मधुसूदन,क्षत्रियशिरोमणि मधुसूदन! तुम्हारे इस शान्ति-स्थापनके प्रयत्नसे कहीं ऐसा न हो कि विद्यावृद्ध और वयोवृद्ध क्षत्रियगण व्यर्थ मृत्युको प्राप्त हों (युद्धमें शस्त्रोंसे होनेवाली मृत्युसे वंचित रह जायाँ)
Keśava! yeṣāṁ patayaḥ putrāś ca pālakāś ca hata-bhaviṣyanti, tā dhṛtarāṣṭra-putra-pautrāṇāṁ snuṣāḥ gāndhāryā sahaikatrībhūya śva-gṛdhra-kurara-saṅkīrṇe samara-aṅgaṇe rudantyo vicarantyaḥ, Janārdana, tad eva tasya yajñasya avabhṛtha-snānaṁ bhaviṣyati. Vidyā-vṛddhā vayaḥ-vṛddhāḥ kṣatriyāḥ kṣatriyarṣabha; vṛthā mṛtyuṁ na kurvīriḥ tvat-kṛte, Madhusūdana.
Keśava, when the husbands, sons, and protectors of those women have been slain, the daughters-in-law of Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s sons and grandsons will gather with Gāndhārī and wander weeping across a battlefield crowded with dogs, vultures, and kurara-birds. O Janārdana—this, indeed, will be the avabhṛtha bath of that sacrifice. O bull among kṣatriyas, Madhusūdana: let not learned and aged kṣatriyas meet a futile death on your account—lest your effort to establish peace end by denying warriors the death they deem fitting in battle.
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that political ‘peace-making’ which ignores entrenched injustice can still culminate in catastrophic war; it frames the moral cost vividly—women’s grief amid carrion on the battlefield—and questions whether delaying or mishandling the crisis causes honorable warriors (especially learned and elderly kṣatriyas) to meet a pointless end rather than a meaningful, dharma-consistent outcome.
Karna addresses Kṛṣṇa during the Udyoga Parva context of negotiations and impending war. He predicts the horrific aftermath if the Kaurava conflict proceeds—Gāndhārī and the Kaurava daughters-in-law roaming and weeping on a corpse-strewn field—and uses a sacrificial metaphor (avabhṛtha-snāna) to underscore the grim ‘conclusion’ of the war-sacrifice, while cautioning Kṛṣṇa that his peace efforts should not inadvertently lead to a futile loss of kṣatriya lives.