Shloka 44

धृष्टद्युम्नस्य द्रोणरथारोহণं सात्यकेः प्रतिरक्षणं च | Dhrishtadyumna Boards Droṇa’s Chariot; Sātyaki’s Counter-Protection

Devanagari script

सा च संयमनी नूनं सदा सुकृतिनां गति:

Transliteration

sā ca saṁyamanī nūnaṁ sadā sukṛtināṁ gatiḥ

Translation

Sañjaya said: “And that Saṁyamanī is indeed, always, the destined course for the meritorious.” In the midst of war’s devastation, the line underscores a moral frame: those who have lived with virtue and right conduct are believed to attain a higher passage after death, even when death comes amid violence.

Word by Word

साshe/that (f.)

चand

संयमनीSaṃyamanī (Yama’s city/abode of restraint)

नूनम्surely, indeed

सदाalways

सुकृतिनाम्of the virtuous/meritorious (persons)

गतिःgoal, destination, refuge

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

स

संजय (Sañjaya)

स

संयमनी (Saṁyamanī)

य

यम (Yama) (implicit by association with Saṁyamanī)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse affirms a moral causality: those who are sukṛtinaḥ—people of meritorious deeds—are believed to have a fitting ‘gati’ (destined passage/attainment) after death. Even in a battlefield context, ethical conduct is presented as shaping one’s ultimate end.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, makes a reflective statement about Saṁyamanī as the ‘gati’ of the virtuous—an interpretive comment that frames deaths and outcomes in the war within a larger moral and cosmological order.