वैशंपायन उवाच
इति ब्रुवन् निववृते भ्रातृभिः सह पाण्डवः ॥
जानंश् च शकुनेर् मायां पार्थो द्यूतम् इयात् पुनः ॥
विविशुस् ते सभां तां तु पुनर् एव महारथाः ॥
व्यथयन्ति स्म चेतांसि सुहृदां भरतर्षभाः ॥
यथोपजोषम् आसीनाः पुनर्द्यूतप्रवृत्तये ॥
सर्वलोकविनाशाय दैवेनोपनिपीडिताः ॥
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca
iti bruvan nivavṛte bhrātṛbhiḥ saha pāṇḍavaḥ ||
jānaṃś ca śakuner māyāṃ pārtho dyūtam iyāt punaḥ ||
viviśus te sabhāṃ tāṃ tu punar eva mahārathāḥ ||
vyathayanti sma cetāṃsi suhṛdāṃ bharatarṣabhāḥ ||
yathopajoṣam āsīnāḥ punardyūtapravṛttaye ||
sarvalokavināśāya daivenopanipīḍitāḥ ||
So saying, the Pāṇḍava turned back together with his brothers; and though he knew Śakuni's deceit, Pārtha went to the game once more. The great chariot-warriors entered that assembly again, shaking the hearts of their friends, bulls among the Bharatas. They sat down as was fitting, to resume the game — for the ruin of the whole world, driven on by fate.
ec6dec0d7d9b · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:12:36 PM UTC
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The narrator conceals neither Yudhiṣṭhira's clear sight — "knowing the deceit" — nor the fatal inevitability: their return is "the ruin of the whole world." Here freedom and fate converge: the king goes knowingly, and yet the compulsion of destiny weighs upon him, for great calamities ripen where a ruler's weakness meets the persistence of evil. The shaken hearts of their friends are the voice of the world's conscience, grieving helplessly over what cannot be averted. The verse teaches that great disasters have human causes — permissiveness, deceit, false obedience — and yet they combine into something greater than the participants themselves; that what is called fate is often the concatenation of many free renunciations of duty; and that when goodness goes to slaughter with open eyes, the world shudders, foreseeing the battle to come.