Shloka 12
शकुनिवधः — Sahadeva’s Slaying of Śakuni
with Ulūka’s fall
“दुर्योधन समझता है कि “संग्रामभूमिमें तुम्हारी सारी सेनाका संहार करके पाण्डवोंको पराजित कर दूँगा।” इसीलिये वह अत्यन्त उग्र रूप धारण कर रहा है ।। निहतं स्वबलं दृष्टवा पीडितं चापि पाण्डवै: । ध्रुवमेष्यति संग्रामे वधायैवात्मनो नृप:,'परंतु अपनी सेनाको पाण्डवोंद्वारा पीड़ित एवं मारी गयी देख राजा दुर्योधन निश्चय ही अपने विनाशके लिये ही युद्धस्थलमें पदार्पण करेगा"
nihataṁ svabalaṁ dṛṣṭvā pīḍitaṁ cāpi pāṇḍavaiḥ | dhruvam eṣyati saṅgrāme vadhāyaivātmano nṛpaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Seeing his own forces slain and grievously harried by the Pāṇḍavas, King Duryodhana will surely enter the battlefield only for his own death. Driven by wrath and delusion, he imagines that by annihilating the opposing host he will defeat the Pāṇḍavas; yet this very resolve, born of pride and desperation, hastens his ruin and exposes the ethical blindness that war can intensify when dharma is abandoned.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
When one is driven by pride and anger, even clear signs of loss are reinterpreted as a reason to escalate; such delusion (moha) turns action into self-destruction. The verse highlights how abandoning dharma and sober judgment in war leads not to victory but to inevitable ruin.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Duryodhana, seeing his own army devastated by the Pāṇḍavas, will nonetheless go into the battle—yet this advance is portrayed as a march toward his own death rather than a strategic move toward victory.