Shloka 32
Book 10, Adhyāya 12: Aśvatthāmā’s Request for the Cakra and the Brahmaśiras Context
तेनाप्येतन््महद् दिव्यं चक्रमप्रतिमं रणे । न प्रार्थितमभून्मूढ यदिदं प्रार्थितं त्वया
tenāpy etan mahad divyaṃ cakram apratimaṃ raṇe | na prārthitam abhūn mūḍha yad idaṃ prārthitaṃ tvayā ||
Even by him, that great and divine discus—matchless in battle—was never asked for. Foolish man, yet this is what you have asked for.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse criticizes reckless craving for extraordinary power: even a worthy figure did not demand the matchless divine discus, but the addressed person—called mūḍha—asks for it. The ethical point is restraint and discernment regarding destructive, exceptional means, especially in war.
Vaiśampāyana comments that a certain great divine weapon (the incomparable cakra) was not sought even by the one who could have claimed it, yet the current petitioner asks for it—implying impropriety, delusion, or unfitness in the request within the wartime context.