Shloka 28
संग्रामस्तु न कर्तव्य: सर्वसैन्यान् ब्रवीमि व: । अहं हि सह सोदर्य: प्रवेक्ष्य हव्यवाहनम्,“मैं तुम सभी सैनिकोंसे कह रहा हूँ, कोई भी युद्ध न करे। अब मैं भाइयोंके साथ अग्निमें प्रवेश कर जाऊँगा
saṅgrāmas tu na kartavyaḥ sarvasainyān bravīmi vaḥ | ahaṃ hi saha sodaryaiḥ pravekṣye havyavāhanam ||
Sañjaya said: “No battle should be fought. I say this to all the troops. For my part, together with my brothers, I shall enter the fire.” In this utterance, the speaker attempts to halt violence by issuing a moral injunction to the entire army, and then turns inward to a drastic act of self-surrender—framing withdrawal from warfare as an ethical refusal, even at the cost of life.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse juxtaposes a public ethical command—prohibiting further fighting—with a personal resolve to abandon the violent field entirely, even through self-immolation. It highlights the tension between collective duty in war and an individual’s moral refusal when conflict is seen as no longer righteous or bearable.
Sañjaya addresses all the soldiers, urging them to stop fighting. Immediately after, he declares that he will enter the fire together with his brothers, signaling a decisive withdrawal from the battlefield and a turn toward an extreme act of self-sacrifice.