Shloka 166
उद्योगपर्व — अध्याय ५ (कृष्णनीति: न्यायशम-उपदेशः; विराट-द्रुपदयोः सैन्यसमाह्वानम्)
संकुला च तदा भूमिश्नषतुरड्गरबलान्विता । राजन! इस प्रकार कौरवों तथा पाण्डवोंके उद्देश्यसे दूर-दूरके नरेश अपनी सेना लेकर प्रस्थान करने लगे। इनकी चतुरंगिणी सेनासे सारी पृथ्वी व्याप्त हुई-सी जान पड़ने लगी
saṅkulā ca tadā bhūmiḥ caturaṅga-bala-anvitā | rājan, kaurava-pāṇḍavayoḥ prayojanārthaṃ dūra-dūrebhyo nṛpāḥ sva-senābhiḥ prasthātuṃ pracakramuḥ | teṣāṃ caturaṅgiṇībhiḥ senābhiḥ sarvā pṛthivī vyāptā iva babhūva |
Vaiśampāyana said: Then the earth became crowded, filled with the fourfold armies. O King, for the sake of the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, rulers from far and wide began to set out with their forces. With those fourfold armies, it seemed as though the whole world had been covered—an ominous sign of how a dynastic quarrel draws all realms into the widening net of war.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
A private dispute among rulers can rapidly become a universal calamity: when power, loyalty, and ambition mobilize, the whole world is drawn into violence. The verse implicitly warns that adharma in leadership multiplies suffering far beyond the original quarrel.
As the Kurukṣetra war approaches, kings from distant lands begin marching with their fourfold armies to support either the Kauravas or the Pāṇḍavas. The scale is so vast that the earth appears crowded and covered by troops.