Shloka 15
शापेन योजयामेति तथास्त्विति च साब्रवीत् । “भाविनि! ये शान्तनुनन्दन भीष्म संग्राममें दूसरेके साथ उलझे हुए थे। अर्जुनके साथ युद्ध नहीं कर रहे थे तो भी सव्यसाची अर्जुनने इनका वध किया है। इस अपराधके कारण हमलोग आज अर्जुनको शाप देना चाहते हैं।” यह सुनकर गंगाजीने कहा--'हाँ, ऐसा ही होना चाहिये' ।। तदहं पितुरावेद्य प्रविश्य व्यथितेन्द्रिया
śāpena yojayāmeti tathāstv iti ca sābravīt | tad ahaṃ pitur āvedya praviśya vyathitendriyāḥ ||
Arjuna said: “They declared, ‘Let us bind him with a curse,’ and she replied, ‘So be it.’ Thereupon, having informed my father, I entered (the place), my senses shaken with distress.” The passage frames a moral reckoning: because Arjuna slew warriors who were not directly engaged with him in battle, the elders seek to impose a curse, and Gaṅgā consents—underscoring the ethical weight of wartime conduct and accountability beyond mere victory.
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even in war, actions carry moral consequences: killing those not directly engaged is treated as an ethical fault, inviting censure and the mechanism of a śāpa (curse). The episode stresses accountability and the limits of permissible violence under dharma.
Arjuna reports that certain elders decide to impose a curse on him for a wartime transgression; Gaṅgā assents (‘tathāstu’). Arjuna then informs his father and proceeds inward, emotionally shaken.