Shloka 6
अतिहर्षोडयमस्थाने तवाद्य मधुसूदन । शोकस्थाने तु सम्प्राप्ते हैडिम्बस्य वधेन तु,“मधुसूदन! हिडिम्बाकुमार घटोत्कचके वधसे आज हमारे लिये तो शोकका अवसर प्राप्त हुआ है, परंतु आपको यह बेमौके अधिक हर्ष हो रहा है
atihārṣo ’yam asthāne tavādya madhusūdana | śokasthāne tu samprāpte haiḍimbasya vadhena tu ||
Sañjaya said: “O Madhusūdana, today you are showing excessive joy at an improper time. For us, however, this is a moment of grief—because Haiḍimba (Ghaṭotkaca), the son of Hiḍimbā, has been slain.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights ethical discernment about emotional propriety: joy can be judged ‘out of place’ when it appears amid another’s loss. In the war narrative, it also points to the tension between personal grief and strategic necessity—how outcomes that are tactically advantageous may still be morally and emotionally painful.
Sañjaya addresses Kṛṣṇa (Madhusūdana), remarking that Kṛṣṇa seems unusually pleased even though the immediate event is the death of Haiḍimba—i.e., Ghaṭotkaca, the powerful son of Hiḍimbā. For those aligned with him, it is a moment of mourning, and Sañjaya frames Kṛṣṇa’s reaction as occurring at an inappropriate time.