Shloka 37
Adhyāya 160: Arjuna’s Envoy-Message—Critique of Borrowed Valor and Pre-dawn Mobilization
वासुदेवसहस्रं वा फाल्गुनानां शतानि वा । आसाद्य माममाोधेषुं द्रविष्यन्ति दिशो दश,“हजारों श्रीकृष्ण और सैकड़ों अर्जुन भी अमोघ बाणोंवाले मुझ वीरके पास आकर दसों दिशाओंमें भाग जायँगे
vāsudevasahasraṃ vā phālgunānāṃ śatāni vā | āsādya mām amogheṣuṃ draviṣyanti diśo daśa ||
Ulūka bermegah: “Sekalipun seribu Vāsudeva atau ratusan Arjuna datang menentangku, apabila berhadapan dengan aku—pahlawan yang anak panahnya tidak pernah tersasar—mereka akan lari bertempiaran ke sepuluh penjuru.”
उलूक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates how arrogance in war can eclipse ethical discernment: Ulūka measures worth by terror and imagined invincibility, contrasting with the epic’s broader insistence that true strength is bound to dharma and self-control.
Ulūka, speaking as a hostile envoy/taunter in the Udyoga Parva context, issues a swaggering threat: he claims that even Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna multiplied many times would flee before him, aiming to intimidate the Pāṇḍavas and provoke conflict.