Shloka 24
Chapter 137: Yuyudhāna (Sātyaki) Slays Somadatta; Yudhiṣṭhira Redirected from Droṇa
जानते युधि संरब्धा जीवितं परिरक्षितुम् । अहो मम सुतानां हि विपन्नं सूत जीवितम्,सूत! युद्धमें क़ुद्ध होनेपर पाण्डव, पांचाल, श्रीकृष्ण तथा सात्यकि--ये कोई भी शत्रुके जीवनकी रक्षा करना नहीं जानते हैं। अहो! मेरे पुत्रोंका जीवन भारी विपत्तिमें पड़ गया है
jānate yudhi saṃrabdhā jīvitaṃ parirakṣitum | aho mama sutānāṃ hi vipannaṃ sūta jīvitam ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “When they are inflamed in battle, they do not know how to spare life. Alas, O Sūta, my sons’ very lives have fallen into grave peril.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how rage in war eclipses restraint: once combatants are seized by battle-fury, the impulse to preserve life—especially an enemy’s—disappears. Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s lament also exposes the ethical cost of attachment: his focus is not on justice or dharma but on the survival of his sons, revealing how partiality intensifies suffering.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, hearing Sañjaya’s report of the battlefield, panics for the Kauravas. He complains that in the heat of combat the opposing side shows no inclination to spare lives, and he fears that his sons are now trapped in a deadly crisis.