Shloka 19
Adhyaya 60: Self-Assertion, Daiva, and the Rhetoric of Inevitability (उद्योग पर्व)
यदि होते समर्था: स्युर्मद्द्विषस्त्रातुमजजसा । न सम त्रयोदश समा: पार्था दुःखमवाप्रुयु:,“यदि ये लोग अनायास ही मेरे शत्रुओंकी रक्षा करनेमें समर्थ होते तो कुन्तीके पुत्र तेरह वर्षोतक कष्ट नहीं भोगते
yadi hote samarthāḥ syur mad-dviṣas trātum ajjasā | na sama trayodaśa samāḥ pārthā duḥkham avāpruyuḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana berkata: “Jika mereka benar-benar mampu melindungi musuh-musuhku dengan mudah, nescaya putera-putera Kuntī—para Pārtha—tidak perlu menanggung derita selama tiga belas tahun penuh.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores a moral inference from outcomes: if powerful protectors truly could have safeguarded the wrongdoers (or ‘enemies’) effortlessly, the righteous would not have been forced into prolonged suffering. It highlights how claims of strength, protection, or legitimacy are tested by the real consequences borne by the innocent.
In the Udyoga Parva’s lead-up to war, the narrator Vaiśampāyana comments on the political situation by pointing to the Pāṇḍavas’ thirteen-year ordeal. Their long exile and hardship are presented as evidence that those aligned against them were not able (or not willing) to protect their side in a way that prevented injustice and suffering.