Shloka 9

Devanagari script

स्वप्नलब्धा यथा लाभा वितथा: प्रतिबोधने । एवं ते क्षत्रिया राजन ये व्यतीता महारणे,राजन! जैसे सपनेमें मिले हुए धन जगनेपर मिथ्या हो जाते हैं, उसी प्रकार जो क्षत्रिय महासमरमें नष्ट हो गये हैं, उनका दर्शन अब दुर्लभ है

Transliteration

svapnalabdhā yathā lābhā vitathāḥ pratibodhane | evaṁ te kṣatriyā rājan ye vyatītā mahāraṇe ||

Translation

രാജാവേ! സ്വപ്നത്തിൽ ലഭിച്ച സമ്പത്ത് ഉണർന്നാൽ മിഥ്യയാകുന്നതുപോലെ, മഹാസമരത്തിൽ കഴിഞ്ഞുപോയ നിന്റെ ക്ഷത്രിയരെ ഇനി കാണുക ദുർലഭം.

Word by Word

स्वप्न-लब्धाःobtained in a dream

यथाjust as

लाभाःgains, acquisitions

वितथाःfalse, unreal

प्रतिबोधनेupon waking, at awakening

एवम्thus, in the same way

तेthose (they)

क्षत्रियाःkshatriyas, warriors

राजन्O king

येwho

व्यतीताःgone, passed away

महा-रणेin the great battle

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vāyu (Vāyudeva)

King (Rājan)

Kṣatriyas

Mahāraṇa (the great battle)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches impermanence: what seems possessed can vanish like dream-wealth at waking. Likewise, the fallen warriors cannot be reclaimed; wisdom lies in accepting the irreversible and loosening attachment to what has passed.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyudeva addresses a king, using the metaphor of dream-gains to explain that the kṣatriyas who died in the great battle are gone beyond retrieval, emphasizing the finality of death after war.