Shloka 12
भीष्मपर्व — अध्याय 54: फल्गुन-प्रतिरोधः, सौबली-व्यूह-विध्वंसः, दुर्योधन-भीष्म-संवादः
क्षयं नीतो5स्मि वार्ष्णेय राज्यहेतो: पराक्रमी । भ्रातरश्वैव मे वीरा: कर्शिता: शरपीडिता:,4वार्ष्णेय! राज्यके लिये पराक्रम करके मैं सब प्रकारसे क्षीण होता जा रहा हूँ। मेरे वीर भ्राता बाणोंसे पीड़ित होकर अत्यन्त कृश होते जा रहे हैं
sañjaya uvāca |
kṣayaṃ nīto ’smi vārṣṇeya rājya-hetoḥ parākramī |
bhrātaraś caiva me vīrāḥ karśitāḥ śara-pīḍitāḥ ||
क्षयं नीतोऽस्मि वार्ष्णेय राज्यहेतोः पराक्रमी। भ्रातरश्चैव मे वीराः कृशिताḥ शरपीडिताः॥
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Prowess pursued for the sake of political gain (rājya-hetoḥ) can culminate in personal ruin and the suffering of one’s kin; the verse underscores the ethical cost of ambition when it is paid for in blood and exhaustion.
Sañjaya addresses Kṛṣṇa (Vārṣṇeya), lamenting that despite acting valiantly for a kingdom, he is being worn down, and his brothers are likewise wasting away under the torment of arrows—an immediate depiction of the battlefield’s attrition.