Shloka 28
Bhīmasena’s Counsel on Grief, Inner Conflict, and the Duty of Kingship (भीमसेन-उपदेशः)
दिष्ट्या दुर्योधन: पापो निहत:ः सानुगो युधि । द्रौपद्या: केशपाशस्य दिष्ट्या त्वं पदवीं गत:
Vaiśampāyana uvāca: diṣṭyā duryodhanaḥ pāpo nihataḥ sānugo yudhi | draupadyāḥ keśapāśasya diṣṭyā tvaṃ padavīṃ gataḥ ||
Dijo Vaiśampāyana: «Por buena fortuna, el pecador Duryodhana ha sido abatido en batalla junto con sus seguidores. Y por buena fortuna, tú también has llegado al “fin del camino”—liberado del peligro—tal como las trenzas atadas de Draupadī fueron al fin desatadas de la afrenta que se les hizo».
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the fall of an unrighteous leader as a moral resolution: adharma culminates in destruction, and the oppressed (symbolized by Draupadī’s dishonored hair) ultimately see restoration and release. It emphasizes ethical causality—wrongdoing in power invites inevitable reckoning.
The narrator reports the battlefield outcome: Duryodhana has been killed along with his supporters. The speaker then expresses relief that the addressed person has safely come through the ordeal, comparing that deliverance to the long-awaited vindication associated with Draupadī’s keśapāśa (her bound tresses kept as a sign of unavenged insult).