Shloka 38
Droṇa-parva Adhyāya 29 — Arjuna’s defeat of Vṛṣaka–Acalā and the neutralization of Śakuni’s māyā
वैरिणं जहि दुर्धर्ष भगदत्तं सुरद्विषम् यथाहं जघध्निवान् पूर्व हितार्थ नरकं तथा,“दुर्जय वीर भगदत्त तुम्हारा वैरी और देवताओंका द्रोही है। अत: तुम उसका वध कर डालो; जैसे कि मैंने पूर्वकालमें लोकहितके लिये नरकासुरका संहार किया था”
sañjaya uvāca |
vairiṇaṃ jahi durdharṣa bhagadattaṃ suradviṣam |
yathāhaṃ jaghadhnivān pūrvaṃ hitārthaṃ narakaṃ tathā ||
Sañjaya said: “Slay your enemy—Bhagadatta—who is hard to overcome and a hater of the gods. Strike him down, just as I once, for the welfare of the world, slew Narakāsura.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames battlefield killing as ethically defensible when directed against a dangerous aggressor who is hostile to the divine order, and when undertaken for loka-hita (the welfare of the world), not for personal hatred or gain.
Sañjaya urges the warrior addressed as “durdharṣa” to kill Bhagadatta, portraying him as a formidable enemy and ‘hater of the gods,’ and supports the exhortation by citing a precedent: the earlier slaying of Narakāsura for the world’s benefit.