Shloka 23
Chapter 59: Baladeva’s Censure, Keśava’s Restraint, and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Moral Accounting
धात्रोपदिष्टं विषमं नूनं फलमसंस्कृतम् । यद् वयं त्वां जिघांसामस्त्वं चास्मान् कुरुसत्तम
dhātropadiṣṭaṃ viṣamaṃ nūnaṃ phalam asaṃskṛtam | yad vayaṃ tvāṃ jighāṃsāmas tvaṃ cāsmān kurusattama ||
Sanjaya berkata: “Sesungguhnya akibat yang keras dan tidak seimbang ini—buah yang tidak suci—telah diperuntukkan oleh Sang Penentu (Vidhata). Kerana telah sampai begini: kami hendak membunuhmu, dan engkau pula hendak membunuh kami, wahai yang terbaik antara kaum Kuru.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames fratricidal war as the bitter ‘fruit’ of morally flawed past actions, now ripening as an adverse destiny allotted by the cosmic Ordainer—highlighting the ethical tragedy that violence rebounds upon one’s own kin.
Sanjaya, narrating events to Dhritarashtra, laments that the conflict has reached a point where both sides—kinsmen of the Kuru line—are mutually intent on killing each other, and he interprets this as a grim, divinely allotted consequence of impure deeds.