Shloka 2
संजय कहते हैं--भरतनन्दन! तदनन्तर कर्णका वध करनेके लिये कृतसंकल्प होकर जाते हुए अर्जुनसे अप्रमेयस्वरूप भगवान् श्रीकृष्णने पुन: इस प्रकार कहा ।।
sañjaya uvāca—bharatanandana! tadanantaraṁ karṇakaṁ vadhaṁ kartuṁ kṛtasaṅkalpaḥ san gacchataḥ arjunasya aprameyasvarūpo bhagavān śrīkṛṣṇaḥ punaḥ evam uvāca—adya saptadaśāhāni vartamānasya, he bhārata, vināśasya atighorasya naravāraṇavājinām.
Sanjaya berkata: “Wahai kebanggaan wangsa Bharata! Setelah itu, ketika Arjuna berangkat dengan tekad bulat untuk menewaskan Karna, Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa—yang hakikat-Nya tak terukur—kembali berkata demikian: ‘Wahai Bharata, hari ini genap hari ketujuh belas dari kehancuran yang amat mengerikan atas manusia, gajah, dan kuda yang terus berlangsung ini.’”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral gravity and cumulative cost of war: as the slaughter continues day after day, Kṛṣṇa frames the conflict not as a momentary clash but as an ongoing, escalating devastation. It also highlights disciplined resolve (saṅkalpa) guided by divine counsel, implying that decisive action in a dharmic crisis must be taken with awareness of consequences and under right guidance.
Sanjaya reports that Arjuna, determined to kill Karna, is moving into action. At that moment Kṛṣṇa speaks again, marking that the terrible destruction of the Kurukṣetra war has reached its seventeenth day, setting the scene for the climactic confrontation involving Karna.