संजय उवाच
हतं भीष्मम् आधिरथिर् विदित्वा; भिन्नां नावम् इवात्यगाधे कुरूणाम् ॥
सोदर्यवद् व्यसनात् सूतपुत्रः; संतारयिष्यंस् तव पुत्रस्य सेनाम् ॥
श्रुत्वा तु कर्णः पुरुषेन्द्रम् अच्युतं; निपातितं शांतनवं महारथम् ॥
अथोपायात् तूर्णम् अमित्रकर्शनो; धनुर्धराणां प्रवरस् तदा वृषः ॥
हते तु भीष्मे रथसत्तमे परैर्; निमज्जतीं नावम् इवार्णवे कुरून् ॥
पितेव पुत्रांस् त्वरितो ऽभ्ययात् ततः; संतारयिष्यंस् तव पुत्रस्य सेनाम् ॥
saṃjaya uvāca
hataṃ bhīṣmam ādhirathir viditvā; bhinnāṃ nāvam ivātyagādhe kurūṇām ||
sodaryavad vyasanāt sūtaputraḥ; saṃtārayiṣyaṃs tava putrasya senām ||
śrutvā tu karṇaḥ puruṣendram acyutaṃ; nipātitaṃ śāṃtanavaṃ mahāratham ||
athopāyāt tūrṇam amitrakarśano; dhanurdharāṇāṃ pravaras tadā vṛṣaḥ ||
hate tu bhīṣme rathasattame parair; nimajjatīṃ nāvam ivārṇave kurūn ||
piteva putrāṃs tvarito 'bhyayāt tataḥ; saṃtārayiṣyaṃs tava putrasya senām ||
[Sanjaya said:] Learning that Bhishma was slain — as if seeing the shattered boat of the Kurus in a bottomless [sea] — the son of Adhiratha [Karna], brotherly [rushing to aid] out of calamity, the son of a suta, hastened to save your son's army. Hearing that the lord of men, the unwavering Shantanava [Bhishma], the great chariot-warrior, had fallen, then the scourge of foes, the foremost of archers, the bull [among men], swiftly drew near. When Bhishma, the best of chariot-warriors, was struck down by the foes, [seeing] the Kurus like a boat sinking in the ocean, he, like a father [rushing] to his sons, hastened there to save your son's army.
34f9b3a11095 · published Jul 19, 2026, 2:46:26 PM UTC
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The image of the sinking boat and the brother and father rushing to help reveals Karna's devotion to the cause of the Kauravas — a genuine devotion, not a show. And yet this very saving zeal is applied to a boat going down for an unjust cause: loyalty, for all its nobility, does not redeem the wrongness of the one it serves. It is telling that the army again seeks in one man what it lost with Bhishma's fall — a support that should rather be placed in dharma. The verse teaches that even lofty loyalty given to untruth does not avert ruin; and that one who hastens to save the drowning will not save himself if the ship is doomed for a cause contrary to truth.