Shloka 25
Chapter 59: Baladeva’s Censure, Keśava’s Restraint, and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Moral Accounting
घातयित्वा वयस्यांश्व भ्रातृनथ पितृंस्तथा । पुत्रान् पौत्रांस्तथा चान्यांस्ततो5सि निधनं गत:,“तुम अपने मित्रों, भाइयों, पितृतुल्य पुरुषों, पुत्रों और पौत्रोंका वध कराकर फिर स्वयं भी मारे गये
ghātayitvā vayasyāṁś ca bhrātṝn atha pitṝṁs tathā | putrān pautrāṁs tathā cānyāṁs tato 'si nidhanaṁ gataḥ ||
ਮਿੱਤਰਾਂ, ਭਰਾਵਾਂ, ਪਿਤਾ-ਸਮਾਨ ਬਜ਼ੁਰਗਾਂ, ਪੁੱਤਰਾਂ, ਪੋਤਿਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਹੋਰਾਂ ਦਾ ਵਧ ਕਰਵਾ ਕੇ, ਅੰਤ ਨੂੰ ਤੂੰ ਆਪ ਵੀ ਨਾਸ ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਹੋਇਆ।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights moral causality in warfare: instigating or enabling the killing of one’s own circle—friends, brothers, elders, descendants—leads to ruin. It frames destruction not merely as a battlefield outcome but as an ethical consequence of adharma-driven violence.
Sañjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, delivers a pointed summary of a warrior’s fate: after orchestrating the deaths of close relations and others, that person too meets death. The statement functions as a grim reckoning within the Shalya Parva’s war narrative.