Mahabharata 9.3.18 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 3, Shloka 18
अध्याय ३: कृपस्य दुर्योधनं प्रति नीत्युपदेशः
Kṛpa’s Counsel to Duryodhana
नोत्सहेताप्यतिक्रान्तुं वेलामिव महार्णव: । “जैसे महासागर तटको नहीं लाँध सकता, उसी प्रकार कुन्तीकुमार अर्जुन समरांगणमें युद्ध करते हुए मुझ दुर्योधनको लाँधघकर आगे जानेकी हिम्मत नहीं कर सकते ।।
na utsahetā api atikrāntuṁ velām iva mahārṇavaḥ |
Sanjaya berkata: “Walaupun dia menghendakinya, dia tidak akan mampu melangkaui aku—seperti samudera agung tidak dapat melampaui garis pantainya sendiri. Demikian juga Arjuna, putera Kunti, meskipun bertempur di medan perang, tidak akan mampu mengumpulkan keberanian untuk melepasi aku, Duryodhana, lalu mara ke hadapan.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how pride and self-assurance can be expressed through vivid similes: Duryodhana’s claim of being an uncrossable ‘boundary’ mirrors the ocean’s fixed limit. Ethically, it points to the danger of arrogance in war—confidence may harden into delusion when it ignores the opponent’s true strength and the larger moral order.
Sanjaya reports a taunting, self-exalting assertion attributed to Duryodhana: he claims Arjuna cannot break past him in battle, comparing himself to the shoreline that even the vast ocean cannot overrun. It functions as battlefield rhetoric meant to intimidate and project dominance.
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