Shloka 4
मārkaṇḍeya-ukta yuddha-vyūha-pratyavyūhaḥ
Battle Formations and Countermeasures in the Rāmopākhyāna
अहं तु मन्ये तव नास्ति कश्रि- देतादशे क्षत्रियसंनिवेशे । यस्त्वाद्य पातालमुखे पतन्तं पाणोौ गृहीत्वा प्रतिसंहरेत,“मुझे तो ऐसा जान पड़ता है कि इस क्षत्रिय-मण्डलीमें कोई भी तेरा ऐसा हितैषी स्वजन नहीं है, जो आज तेरा हाथ पकड़कर तुझे पातालके गहरे गर्तमें गिरनेसे बचा ले। अरे! जैसे कोइ मूर्ख मनुष्य हिमालयकी उपत्यकामें विचरनेवाले पर्वतशिखरके समान ऊँचे एवं मदकी धारा बहानेवाले गजराजको हाथमें डंडा लेकर उसके यूथसे अलग हाँक लाना चाहे, उसी प्रकार तू धर्मराज युधिष्ठिरको जीतनेका हौसला रखता है
ahaṁ tu manye tava nāsti kaścid etādṛśe kṣatriya-sanniveśe | yas tv adya pātāla-mukhe patantaṁ pāṇau gṛhītvā pratisaṁharet ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “I think that in this assembly of kṣatriyas there is no one who is truly your well-wisher—no kinsman who, today, would seize your hand and draw you back as you plunge toward the mouth of the netherworld. The sense is that you are rushing toward ruin, and none here is restraining you with timely counsel or protective action.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
A true well-wisher restrains a person from self-destructive choices; ethical friendship is shown not by approval but by timely intervention that pulls one back from ruin.
The narrator (Vaiśaṃpāyana) describes a tense kṣatriya gathering and remarks that no one present is acting as a protective ally to stop the addressed person from heading toward disaster—figuratively ‘falling into the mouth of Pātāla’—by taking his hand and drawing him back.