Shloka 23
धिक् क्रोधं धिक् सखे लोभं घिड्मोहं धिगमर्षितम् । धिगस्तु क्षात्रमाचारं धिगस्तु बलमौरसम्,'सखे! क्रोधको धिक्कार है, लोभको धिक्कार है, मोहको धिक्कार है, अमर्षको थिक्कार है, इस क्षत्रियोचित आचारको धिक्कार है तथा औरस बलको भी धिक्कार है
dhik krodhaṁ dhik sakhe lobhaṁ dhik mohaṁ dhig amarṣitam | dhig astu kṣātram ācāraṁ dhig astu balam aurasam ||
Sañjaya said: “Fie upon anger, my friend; fie upon greed; fie upon delusion; fie upon that unforbearing wrath. Fie upon the warrior’s code of conduct, and fie upon innate, hereditary might as well.” In the grim logic of war, he condemns the inner passions and the very martial ethos that unleash them, as they drive men toward ruinous deeds.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Unchecked inner passions—anger, greed, and delusion—together with unforbearing resentment, are portrayed as the real engines of destructive action. The verse goes further by censuring even the warrior-code and pride in innate strength when they become excuses for violence divorced from restraint and discernment.
In Sañjaya’s report of the battlefield events, this line functions as a moral outcry: he laments the forces that propel kṣatriyas into escalating retaliation. It reflects a moment of ethical recoil amid the carnage, blaming both personal impulses and the martial ethos that legitimizes them.