Shloka 6
अध्याय २६ — शल्यस्य सारथ्य-नियोजनं, कर्णस्य प्रस्थानं, उत्पातदर्शनं च
Chapter 26: Śalya appointed as charioteer; Karṇa’s departure; portents
ते त्वर्जुन॑ समासाद्य योधा: शतसहस्रश: । अगच्छन् विलयं सर्वे तारक्ष्य दृष्टवे पन्नगा:,परंतु जैसे गरुड़को देखते ही सर्प अपने प्राण खो देते हैं, उसी प्रकार वे सब-के-सब लाखों योद्धा अर्जुनके पास पहुँचते ही कालके गालमें चले गये
te tv arjuna samāsādya yodhāḥ śatasahasraśaḥ | agacchan vilayaṁ sarve tārakṣya-dṛṣṭve pannagāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “But when those warriors—by the hundreds of thousands—closed in upon Arjuna, they all met destruction at once. Just as serpents lose their very life on beholding Tārakṣya (Garuḍa), so too did they, on merely reaching Arjuna, pass into the jaws of Death.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the overwhelming, almost fated power of a divinely-protected hero in righteous war: when adharma-driven forces rush in blindly, they can meet swift ruin—like serpents before Garuḍa—highlighting the ethical warning against reckless aggression and the inevitability of death in battle.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that immense numbers of warriors surged toward Arjuna, but the moment they reached him they were destroyed; the poet intensifies Arjuna’s battlefield dominance through the image of serpents perishing at the sight of Garuḍa.