Shloka 57
यदा शूरं च भीरुं च मारयत्यन्तको यम: । को नु मूढो न युध्येत मादृश: क्षत्रियव्रत:,“तुम जितने क्षत्रिय वीर यहाँ आये हो सभी कान खोलकर सुन लो। जब प्राणियोंका अन्त करनेवाला यमराज शूरवीर और कायर दोनोंको ही मार डालता है, तब मेरे-जैसा क्षत्रियव्रतका पालन करनेवाला होकर भी कौन ऐसा मूर्ख होगा, जो युद्ध नहीं करेगा?
yadā śūraṃ ca bhīruṃ ca mārayaty antako yamaḥ | ko nu mūḍho na yudhyeta mādṛśaḥ kṣatriya-vrataḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “When Yama—the Ender who brings beings to their close—strikes down both the brave and the fearful alike, then who, being bound by the warrior’s vow as I am, would be so deluded as to refuse battle?”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Death comes to all—brave and fearful alike—so a kṣatriya should not abandon his ordained duty out of fear; refusing battle would be delusion when one is bound by the warrior’s vow.
In the midst of the Karṇa Parva battle account, Sañjaya reports a martial exhortation framed as a reflection on mortality: since Yama takes everyone, a warrior committed to kṣatriya-dharma must fight rather than shrink back.