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:
ahārṣuś ca vanaṁ yāntaḥ samūlaṁ hṛdayaṁ mama | atadarhā mahātmānaḥ kathaṁ keśava pāṇḍavāḥ ||
«¡Oh Keśava! Cuando los Pāṇḍavas, de alma grande, partieron hacia el bosque, pareció que se llevaban mi propio corazón, arrancado de raíz. Jamás fueron dignos de tal destino. ¡Oh Keśava!, ¿cómo pudo recaer sobre los Pāṇḍavas un sufrimiento así?»
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.