Shloka 55
धृतराष्ट्रविलापः — Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Lament and Inquiry (Śalya-parva, Adhyāya 2)
दीर्घमुष्णं स नि:श्वस्य चिन्तयित्वा पराभवम् | दुःखेन महता राजन् संतप्तो भरतर्षभ:ः
dīrgham uṣṇaṃ sa niḥśvasya cintayitvā parābhavam | duḥkhena mahatā rājan santapto bharatarṣabhaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Having heaved a long, hot sigh and reflected on his defeat, the bull among the Bharatas—burning inwardly with great sorrow—was deeply distressed, O king. The verse highlights the moral weight of failure in war: defeat is not merely tactical loss, but an inner reckoning that scorches the mind with remorse, fear, and the consequences of one’s choices.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores that defeat in a dharmic conflict is experienced as an inner moral crisis: a warrior’s loss brings not only external setback but also intense mental ‘burning’—a reckoning with choices, responsibility, and the consequences that follow.
The narrator describes a leading Kuru figure (called ‘bharatarṣabha’) reacting to a setback: he exhales a long, heated sigh, reflects on the defeat, and becomes consumed by great sorrow, conveying the psychological aftermath of failure on the battlefield.