Shloka 13
आचार्य-क्षमा, देśa–kāla-नīti, तथा भेद-दोषः
Teacher-Reconciliation, Timing-Policy, and the Fault of Factionalism
स त्वं कथमिहानेन शड्खशब्देन भीषित: । विवर्णरूपो वित्रस्त: पुरुष: प्राकृतो यथा,फिर यहाँ इस शंखनादसे तुम भयभीत कैसे हो गये? साधारण मनुष्योंके समान अधिक डर जानेके कारण तुम्हारे शरीरका रंग फीका कैसे पड़ गया?
sa tvaṁ katham ihānena śaṅkhaśabdena bhīṣitaḥ | vivarṇarūpo vitrastaḥ puruṣaḥ prākṛto yathā ||
Arjuna said: “How is it that you have become frightened here by this sound of the conch? Why has your complexion turned pale and you appear shaken—like an ordinary man overcome by fear?”
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical expectation of steadiness and courage in a crisis: fear that visibly overwhelms a person is portrayed as the mark of an untrained, ordinary man, implicitly urging self-control and kṣatriya-like composure in the face of martial signals.
In the Virāṭa episode’s war setting, a conch-blast is heard as hostilities loom. Arjuna addresses his companion, surprised that the conch-sound has made him visibly pale and shaken, questioning this sudden fearfulness.