Shloka 41

Devanagari script

एष मे क्रियमाणाया भारतेन तदा विभो । अभवद्धृदि संकल्पो घातयेयं महाव्रतम्‌,प्रभो! भरतवंशी भीष्मने जबसे मुझे इस दशामें डाल दिया है, तबसे मेरे हृदयमें यही संकल्प उठता है कि मैं उस महान्‌ व्रतधारीका वध करा दूँ

Transliteration

eṣa me kriyamāṇāyā bhāratena tadā vibho | abhavaddhṛdi saṅkalpo ghātayeyam mahāvratam, prabho ||

Translation

噢，威能的主宰！自从那位婆罗多后裔使我陷入此等境地，我心中便生起决意：“我必使那位誓守大誓的男子被诛。”

Word by Word

एषःthis

मेof me / my

क्रियमाणायाःwhile (I was) being done/treated (thus)

भारतेनby the Bharata (descendant of Bharata)

तदाthen

विभोO mighty one / O lord

अभवत्arose / became

हृदिin (the) heart

संकल्पःresolve / intention

घातयेयम्I should cause to be slain

महाव्रतम्the great vow (vow-holder)

प्रभोO lord

Speaker

राम उवाच

Characters & Entities

Rama (speaker)

Bharata (lineage/descendant)

Mahāvrata (the great vow-bound person; implied Bhīṣma in context)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how injury and perceived injustice can harden into saṅkalpa (a binding resolve), raising an ethical tension between personal vengeance and the restraint demanded by dharma—especially when the target is a mahāvrata, one defined by a solemn vow.

What is happening in the narrative?

Rama addresses a powerful lord, recalling that after a Bharata-descended figure caused him to fall into a humiliating or constrained state, he formed the intention to bring about the death of the ‘great vow-bound’ person—understood in the broader epic tradition as a vow-defined warrior such as Bhīṣma.