Shloka 14
Karṇa’s advance against the Pāṇḍava host; Arjuna’s clash with the Saṃśaptakas (कर्णस्य पाण्डवसेनाप्रवेशः—अर्जुनस्य संशप्तकसंप्रहारः)
समागतानि चैतानि यो हन्याद् भगवंस्तदा । एकेषुणा देववर: स नो मृत्युर्भविष्यति
samāgatāni caitāni yo hanyād bhagavaṁs tadā | ekeṣuṇā devavaraḥ sa no mṛtyur bhaviṣyati, nibodha manasā cātra na te kāryā vicāraṇā ||
ドゥルヨーダナは言った。「尊き御方よ、（三つの都が）ひとつに合わさり一体となるその時、ただ一本の矢でそれらを滅ぼし得る者がいるならば——神々のうち最も勝れたその者こそ、我らの死の因となろう。心を堅くしてこれを悟れ。疑いを差し挟んではならぬ。」
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even seemingly invincible protections based on conditions and clever safeguards remain vulnerable to a higher power and to the ripening of fate; clinging to certainty and forbidding reflection (“no deliberation”) can signal pride and moral blindness in counsel.
Duryodhana cites a well-known mythic condition: when the three strongholds unite, only a supreme divine archer who can destroy them with a single arrow will be their death. He urges his listener to accept this point firmly and not to doubt it, using the exemplum to frame the present war’s stakes and inevitabilities.