Shloka 11
Ulūpī’s Disclosure and the Saṃjīvana-Maṇi: Arjuna’s Restoration (उलूपी-प्रकटनं संजीवनमणि-स्थापनं च)
एषा तु विहिता शान्ति: पुत्राद् यां प्राप्ततानसि । वसुभिर्वसुधापाल गड़या च महामते,“महामते! पृथ्वीपाल! पूर्वकालमें वसुओं तथा गंगाजीने इसी रूपमें उस पापकी शान्ति निश्चित की थी; जिसे आपने अपने पुत्रसे पराजयके रूपमें प्राप्त किया है
eṣā tu vihitā śāntiḥ putrād yāṃ prāptatān asi | vasubhir vasudhāpāla gaṅgayā ca mahāmate ||
Arjuna said: “O wise one, O protector of the earth! This is the very expiation that was formerly ordained—established by the Vasus and by the river Gaṅgā. It is that same ‘pacification of sin’ which you have now obtained through your son, in the form of defeat.”
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Wrongdoing is not erased by power or denial; it is pacified through a prescribed form of restitution or expiation. Here, defeat—received through one’s own son—is presented as a divinely sanctioned means of settling a moral debt.
Arjuna addresses a king (‘protector of the earth’) and explains that the outcome the king has just experienced—defeat at the hands of his son—is not random. It matches an older, authoritative ordinance attributed to the Vasus and Gaṅgā, functioning as the determined ‘śānti’ (expiation) for a prior fault.