मत्स्नेहाच् चैव राधायाः सद्यः क्षीरम् अवातरत् ॥
सा मे मूत्रं पुरीषं च प्रतिजग्राह माधव ॥
तस्याः पिण्डव्यपनयं कुर्याद् अस्मद्विधः कथम् ॥
धर्मविद् धर्मशास्त्राणां श्रवणे सततं रतः ॥
तथा माम् अभिजानाति सूतश् चाधिरथः सुतम् ॥
पितरं चाभिजानामि तम् अहं सौहृदात् सदा ॥
स हि मे जातकर्मादि कारयाम् आस माधव ॥
शास्त्रदृष्टेन विधिना पुत्रप्रीत्या जनार्दन ॥
नाम मे वसुषेणेति कारयाम् आस वै द्विजैः ॥
भार्याश् चोढा मम प्राप्ते यौवने तेन केशव ॥
matsnehāc caiva rādhāyāḥ sadyaḥ kṣīram avātarat ||
sā me mūtraṃ purīṣaṃ ca pratijagrāha mādhava ||
tasyāḥ piṇḍavyapanayaṃ kuryād asmadvidhaḥ katham ||
dharmavid dharmaśāstrāṇāṃ śravaṇe satataṃ rataḥ ||
tathā mām abhijānāti sūtaś cādhirathaḥ sutam ||
pitaraṃ cābhijānāmi tam ahaṃ sauhṛdāt sadā ||
sa hi me jātakarmādi kārayām āsa mādhava ||
śāstradṛṣṭena vidhinā putraprītyā janārdana ||
nāma me vasuṣeṇeti kārayām āsa vai dvijaiḥ ||
bhāryāś coḍhā mama prāpte yauvane tena keśava ||
"Out of love for me, milk at once flowed from Radha's breast; she cleaned away my urine and excrement, O Madhava. How could one such as I, who knows dharma and constantly delights in hearing the laws of dharma, deprive her of the funeral offerings? So too the suta Adhiratha acknowledges me as his son, and I, out of love, always acknowledge him as my father. He it was, O Madhava, who had my birth-rite and the other rites performed for me, according to the rule laid down by scripture, out of a father's love for a son, O Janardana. He had the brahmanas name me Vasushena, and when my youth arrived, he brought me wives, O Keshava."
9ec6eef82138 · published Jul 17, 2026, 5:59:56 AM UTC
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Karna speaks from within a complex dharma: he acknowledges the truth Krishna has revealed, yet does not set aside his debt of gratitude to those who raised and sustained him. His image of the war as a sacrifice shows that the battle is already being lived by him as an inevitable, sacred and terrible reckoning for choices made long ago.