Shloka 154
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
संजय उवाच तेषां नूनं भयान्नासौ कृतवान् कुरुनन्दन । असांनिध्याद्धि पार्थानां केशवस्य च धीमत:
sañjaya uvāca teṣāṃ nūnaṃ bhayān nāsau kṛtavān kurunandana | asānnidhyād dhi pārthānāṃ keśavasya ca dhīmataḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Surely, O delight of the Kurus, he did not do it out of fear of them. For the Pāṇḍavas were not present, and neither was the wise Keśava. (Thus the deed was done only in their absence, when the restraining force of their presence was removed.)
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how wrongdoing often occurs when those who embody strength and moral restraint are absent; it implies that the agent’s action was not brave confrontation but an opportunistic deed enabled by the absence of the Pāṇḍavas and Kṛṣṇa.
Sañjaya explains to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the deed under discussion was not done out of fear of the Pāṇḍavas; rather, it was carried out because the Pāṇḍavas and the wise Kṛṣṇa (Keśava) were not present.