Shloka 18
सवा कर्णो महाबुद्धि: सर्वशस्त्रभूतां वर: । न मुक्तवान् कथं सूत ताममोघां धनंजये,सूत! समस्त शस्त्रधारियोंमें श्रेष्ठ कर्ण तो बड़ा बुद्धिमान् है; उसने स्वयं ही उस अमोघ शक्तिको अर्जुनपर कैसे नहीं छोड़ा?
Dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca:
Sa vā Karṇo mahābuddhiḥ sarvaśastrabhṛtāṁ varaḥ |
Na muktavān kathaṁ sūta tām amoghāṁ Dhanañjaye ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “That Karṇa—of great intelligence, the foremost among all wielders of weapons—why, O Sūta, did he not release upon Dhanañjaya (Arjuna) that unfailing power? If it was truly unerring, what restrained him from using it against the one who most threatened our cause?”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the tension between possessing power and choosing when (or whether) to use it. Even an ‘unfailing’ weapon does not automatically determine outcomes; human judgment, constraints of circumstance, prior vows/allocations of weapons, and the moral weight of decisions shape action in war.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra questions Sañjaya about Karṇa’s failure to deploy an unerring power-weapon against Arjuna. He is trying to understand why the Kaurava side did not neutralize its most formidable opponent when a seemingly decisive means was available.