Shloka 7
Kṛṣṇa at Duryodhana’s House: Refusal of Hospitality and Departure to Vidura (कृष्णस्य धार्तराष्ट्रनिवेशनगमनम्)
अहार्षुश्न वनं॑ यान्त: समूलं हृदयं मम | अतदर्हा महात्मान: कथ॑ं केशव पाण्डवा:,“केशव! वन जाते समय महात्मा पाण्डव मेरे हृदयको जड़-मूलसहित खींचकर अपने साथ ले गये। वे वनवासके योग्य कदापि नहीं थे। फिर उन्हें यह कष्ट कैसे प्राप्त हुआ?
ahārṣuś ca vanaṁ yāntaḥ samūlaṁ hṛdayaṁ mama | atadarhā mahātmānaḥ kathaṁ keśava pāṇḍavāḥ ||
“As those great-souled Pāṇḍavas set out for the forest, they seemed to carry away my very heart, torn out by the roots. They were never fit for such a fate; O Keśava, how did such suffering come to befall the Pāṇḍavas?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical tension between virtue and suffering: even the righteous may undergo hardship that appears undeserved. It invites reflection on dharma under adversity and the search for moral causality (often framed in the epic through destiny, past actions, and the testing of character).
A speaker, addressing Kṛṣṇa as Keśava, mourns the Pāṇḍavas’ departure to the forest. The grief is expressed as if the Pāṇḍavas have taken the speaker’s heart away ‘by the roots,’ and the speaker questions how such noble men could have been subjected to exile at all.