Shloka 38
Bhagadattā’s Deployment Against Ghaṭotkaca; Elephant-Corps Escalation
भवांश्व॒ मध्यस्थतया नित्यमस्मानुपेक्षते । सो<हं कुपथमारूढ: पश्य दैवमिदं मम,“आप मध्यस्थ बने रहनेके कारण सदा हम-लोगोंकी उपेक्षा करते हैं। मैं बड़े बुरे मार्गपर चढ़ आया। मेरे इस दुर्भाग्यको देखिये"
bhavān śva madhyasthatayā nityam asmān upekṣate | so 'haṃ kupatham ārūḍhaḥ paśya daivam idaṃ mama ||
Sañjaya said: “You, remaining ever in a stance of neutrality, continually disregard us. And so I have mounted a wicked path—behold this fate of mine.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical danger of prolonged “neutrality” when it becomes neglect: feeling ignored, a person may rationalize a turn toward an unrighteous course (kupatha) and then attribute the outcome to fate (daivam). It implicitly warns that moral responsibility cannot be fully shifted onto destiny.
Sañjaya voices a complaint to an addressed elder/authority figure: because that person stays neutral and overlooks “us,” Sañjaya says he has ended up taking a wrong path and asks the listener to witness his misfortune as an instance of fate.