Shloka 46
अर्जुनस्य गुरुधर्मविलापः तथा शैनेयकर्णयोर्युद्धारम्भः | Arjuna’s Lament on Guru-Dharma and the Opening of the Sātyaki–Karṇa Duel
विद्राव्य सर्वसैन्यानि तावकानि सहस्रश:
vidrāvya sarvasainyāni tāvakāni sahasraśaḥ
Sañjaya said: Having routed all your forces in every direction, they drove them back in their thousands—an image of the war’s relentless momentum, where valor and strategy can suddenly overturn even a vast host, and where attachment to mere numbers proves ethically hollow before the consequences of adharma and violence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of worldly strength: even vast armies can be scattered when confronted by superior resolve and tactics. Ethically, it hints that reliance on sheer numbers and power is unstable, and that the moral weight of the conflict (dharma vs. adharma) shapes outcomes beyond material advantage.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the Kaurava forces were driven into flight in large numbers—an episode of battlefield collapse where the opposing side’s assault causes widespread panic and dispersal among ‘your’ troops.