स तु गच्छन्न् अनेकाग्रः सभाम् एवानुचिन्तयन् ॥
श्रियं च ताम् अनुपमां धर्मराजस्य धीमतः ॥
प्रमत्तो धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्रो दुर्योधनस् तदा ॥
नाभ्यभाषत् सुबलजं भाषमाणं पुनः पुनः ॥
अनेकाग्रं तु तं दृष्ट्वा शकुनिः प्रत्यभाषत ॥
दुर्योधन कुतोमूलं निःश्वसन्न् इव गच्छसि ॥
sa tu gacchann anekāgraḥ sabhām evānucintayan ||
śriyaṃ ca tām anupamāṃ dharmarājasya dhīmataḥ ||
pramatto dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putro duryodhanas tadā ||
nābhyabhāṣat subalajaṃ bhāṣamāṇaṃ punaḥ punaḥ ||
anekāgraṃ tu taṃ dṛṣṭvā śakuniḥ pratyabhāṣata ||
duryodhana kutomūlaṃ niḥśvasann iva gacchasi ||
He, however, walking on distractedly, brooding only on that hall and on the incomparable splendor of the wise Dharmaraja, absorbed in thought, Duryodhana the son of Dhritarashtra did not answer the son of Subala [Shakuni], who kept speaking again and again. Seeing him so distracted, Shakuni said: "Duryodhana, from what root do you go along as though sighing?"
3cf02fea1296 · published Jul 16, 2026, 3:49:22 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Brooding over another's glory so absorbs Duryodhana that he is deaf to his own companion. It is telling that envy makes a man possessed: the envious cannot freely think of anything else, another's good eclipses the whole world for him. The verse teaches that passion, once it masters the mind, enslaves it: where attention should be gathered, there is only an obsessive ache over another's happiness. And Shakuni's question is a fateful turn: it approaches the wound to reopen it, not to heal it. It is bad enough to be seized by envy; it is worse still when the one at hand, instead of healing, fans the sickness. A bad counselor beside a sick heart is ruin for many.