Shloka 41

Devanagari script

अयं सरथ आयात: श्वैताश्वः कृष्णसारथि: । दुर्वार: सर्वसैन्यानां विपाक: कर्मणामिव

Transliteration

ayaṃ saratha āyātaḥ śvaitāśvaḥ kṛṣṇasārathiḥ | durvāraḥ sarvasainyānāṃ vipākaḥ karmaṇām iva

Translation

Sañjaya dit : «Voici que vient ce char—tiré par des chevaux blancs, avec Kṛṣṇa pour cocher. Il est irrésistible pour toutes les armées, comme la maturation inéluctable des actes.»

Word by Word

अयम्this (man/one)

सरथःthe charioteer / one with a chariot

आयातःhas come / arrived

श्वैताश्वःhaving white horses

कृष्णसारथिःwhose charioteer is Krishna / Krishna as charioteer

दुर्वारःirresistible / hard to ward off

सर्वसैन्यानाम्of all armies

विपाकःthe ripening/result

कर्मणाम्of deeds/actions

इवlike / as if

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Kṛṣṇa

chariot

white horses

armies

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the inevitability of karma’s fruition: just as a mighty chariot cannot be easily stopped, the results of one’s deeds mature and arrive with compelling force. It suggests that ethical causality underlies even the visible events of war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the approach of the famed chariot with Kṛṣṇa as charioteer, drawn by white horses, portraying it as an unstoppable presence on the battlefield—something that no army can readily withstand.