Shloka 5
Abhimanyu’s Assault on Bhīṣma’s Screen; Banner-Felling and Reinforcements (सौभद्र-भीष्म-समरः)
अशान््त्रविदितं घोर तप्यन्ते ये तपो जना: । दम्भाहंकारसंयुक्ता: कामरागबलान्विता:
arjuna uvāca | aśāstra-viditaṁ ghoraṁ tapyante ye tapo-janāḥ | dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ ||
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः। दम्भाहंकारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः॥
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Austerity is not automatically virtuous: when it is not guided by śāstra and is driven by hypocrisy, ego, desire, attachment, and pride, it becomes ethically distorted and spiritually unwholesome.
Arjuna is speaking and characterizing a type of practitioner who performs frightening, self-tormenting penance outside scriptural norms, motivated by vanity and craving—setting up a moral contrast between dharmic discipline and ego-driven self-mortification.