Mahabharata 9.3.5 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 3, Shloka 5
अध्याय ३: कृपस्य दुर्योधनं प्रति नीत्युपदेशः
Kṛpa’s Counsel to Duryodhana
वणिजो नावि भिन्नायामगाधे विप्लवा इव
vaṇijo nāvi bhinnāyām agādhe viplavā iva, rājan!
Sañjaya nói: “Tâu Đại vương, như những thương nhân giữa biển sâu khôn dò, khi thuyền vỡ nát, không còn phương tiện, liền hoảng loạn—dẫu vẫn khao khát tới bờ xa—cũng vậy, khi Arjuna đội mũ miện giết Karṇa, con trai người đánh xe, kẻ từng như một hòn đảo nâng đỡ quân ta, thì tất cả chúng tôi đều kinh hãi, thân thể rách nát vì tên.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how armies and leaders can become psychologically unmoored when their chief support is lost: confidence collapses like shipwrecked merchants in a deep sea. It underscores the ethical and strategic weight of dependence on a single champion and the inevitability of fear and disarray when that pillar falls.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the Kaurava side’s panic after Arjuna, the ‘diadem-wearing’ hero, has slain Karṇa. The Kauravas, already wounded by arrows, feel as if they have lost their ‘island’ of refuge in the battle and are overwhelmed like shipwreck victims in an endless ocean.
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