Shloka 50
अध्याय ४ — दुर्योधनस्य असंधि-निश्चयः
Duryodhana’s Refusal of Reconciliation
एतत् क्षेममहं मन्ये न च पार्थश्च विग्रहम् । नत्वां ब्रवीमि कार्पण्यान्न प्राणपरिरक्षणात्
etat kṣemam ahaṃ manye na ca pārthaś ca vigraham | na tvāṃ bravīmi kārpaṇyān na prāṇaparirakṣaṇāt ||
Sañjaya said: “I consider this course to be the safer and more wholesome one, and I do not think that Pārtha should enter into a quarrel. I say this to you not out of cowardly faint-heartedness, nor from any desire to save my own life.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes prudent restraint from cowardice: advising a safer, welfare-oriented course and discouraging needless conflict is ethically valid when motivated by kṣema (the common good) rather than by kārpaṇya (faint-heartedness) or fear for one’s own life.
Sañjaya, while reporting events and counsel in the war context, states his judgment that it is better and safer not to provoke or enter into a direct quarrel with Pārtha (Arjuna), and he clarifies that his advice is not driven by personal fear or self-preservation.