Shloka 243
Karna Reproves Shalya; Brahmin Reports on Bāhlīkas; Shalya’s Universalizing Rebuttal (कर्ण–शल्य संवादः)
सोढा घोराणि बहुश: शल्यभूतानि संजय । अहो! द्यूतक्रीडाका यह घोर परिणाम इस समय प्रकट हुआ है। संजय! आश्चर्य है कि मैंने दुर्योधनके कारण बहुत-से तीव्र एवं भयंकर दुःख
soḍhā ghorāṇi bahuśaḥ śalyabhūtāni sañjaya | aho dyūtakrīḍākāyaḥ ghoraḥ pariṇāmaḥ asmin samaye prakaṭaḥ | sañjaya āścaryam etat yat mayā duryodhanakāraṇāt bahūni tīvra-bhayānakāni duḥkhāni kaṇṭakavat kaṣamāṇāni soḍhāni |
Dijo Sañjaya: «He soportado, una y otra vez, muchos sufrimientos terribles—dolores que se han vuelto como púas clavadas dentro. ¡Ay!, la espantosa consecuencia de aquel juego de dados se ha revelado ahora, en este mismo instante. Sañjaya, es asombroso: por causa de Duryodhana he cargado incontables penas agudas y temibles, que punzan como espinas.»
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions driven by greed and adharma—here symbolized by the dice-game—ripen into unavoidable suffering. The verse underscores moral causality: a single unethical choice can expand into repeated, thorn-like pains for many.
In the midst of the war’s grim unfolding, Sañjaya reflects on how the present catastrophe is the visible fruition of the earlier gambling episode, and he attributes the chain of agonies to Duryodhana’s role in that wrongdoing.