वधे कुन्तीसुतस्याजौ नाचार्य विजयो मम ॥
हते युधिष्ठिरे पार्थो हन्यात् सर्वान् हि नो ध्रुवम् ॥
न च शक्यो रणे सर्वैर् निहन्तुम् अमरैर् अपि ॥
य एव चैषां शेषः स्यात् स एवास्मान् न शेषयेत् ॥
सत्यप्रतिज्ञे त्व् आनीते पुनर्द्यूतेन निर्जिते ॥
पुनर् यास्यन्त्य् अरण्याय कौन्तेयास् तम् अनुव्रताः ॥
सो ऽयं मम जयो व्यक्तं दीर्घकालं भविष्यति ॥
अतो न वधम् इच्छामि धर्मराजस्य कर्हि चित् ॥
vadhe kuntīsutasyājau nācārya vijayo mama ||
hate yudhiṣṭhire pārtho hanyāt sarvān hi no dhruvam ||
na ca śakyo raṇe sarvair nihantum amarair api ||
ya eva caiṣāṃ śeṣaḥ syāt sa evāsmān na śeṣayet ||
satyapratijñe tv ānīte punardyūtena nirjite ||
punar yāsyanty araṇyāya kaunteyās tam anuvratāḥ ||
so 'yaṃ mama jayo vyaktaṃ dīrghakālaṃ bhaviṣyati ||
ato na vadham icchāmi dharmarājasya karhi cit ||
[Duryodhana:] In slaying the son of Kunti [Yudhishthira] in battle there is no victory for me, O preceptor; for if Yudhishthira is slain, Partha [Arjuna] will surely destroy us all. Moreover, he cannot be overcome in battle by all of us together, even by the gods themselves; and whichever of them [the Pandavas] should survive, that one will surely not spare us. But if the truthful one [Yudhishthira] is captured and beaten once more at dice, the Kaunteyas [Pandavas], loyal to him, will again withdraw into exile. That victory of mine will clearly endure for a long time; therefore I have no desire at all for the death of Dharmaraja.
38191d1cc7a6 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:00:03 PM UTC
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Here Duryodhana's cunning is fully laid bare: he does not wish to kill Yudhishthira not out of mercy but out of calculation -- to capture him, beat him again by deceit, and exile him, repeating the old crime of the dice game. Thus evil is never satisfied but craves to repeat a former sin, since a deception that once succeeded seems a reliable path. It is telling that Duryodhana himself admits the invincibility of Arjuna and the Pandavas -- and so seeks not honest victory but a fresh fraud. The verse teaches that unrepentant evil invents nothing new but repeats over and over a deceit that once worked; that one who fears honest combat resorts to cunning; and that a villain's apparent "mercy" is only another mask of his ever-present greed.