तान् प्रमृद्य शरव्रातैः पाण्डवानां महारथान् ॥
युधिष्ठिरसमभ्याशे तस्थौ मृत्युर् इवान्तकः ॥
ततो ऽभवन् महाशब्दो राजन् यौधिष्ठिरे बले ॥
हृतो राजेति योधानां समीपस्थे यतव्रते ॥
अब्रुवन् सैनिकास् तत्र दृष्ट्वा द्रोणस्य विक्रमम् ॥
अद्य राजा धार्तराष्ट्रः कृतार्थो वै भविष्यति ॥
आगमिष्यति नो नूनं धार्तराष्ट्रस्य संयुगे ॥
tān pramṛdya śaravrātaiḥ pāṇḍavānāṃ mahārathān ||
yudhiṣṭhirasamabhyāśe tasthau mṛtyur ivāntakaḥ ||
tato 'bhavan mahāśabdo rājan yaudhiṣṭhire bale ||
hṛto rājeti yodhānāṃ samīpasthe yatavrate ||
abruvan sainikās tatra dṛṣṭvā droṇasya vikramam ||
adya rājā dhārtarāṣṭraḥ kṛtārtho vai bhaviṣyati ||
āgamiṣyati no nūnaṃ dhārtarāṣṭrasya saṃyuge ||
Having swept aside those mighty rathins of the Pandavas with showers of arrows, he took his stand beside Yudhishthira like Death, the Destroyer. Then a great cry arose, O king, in Yudhishthira's host: 'The king is taken!' the warriors cried, seeing Drona, steadfast in his vows, close beside him. The soldiers there, beholding Drona's fearsome onslaught, said: 'Today King Dhartarashtra [Duryodhana] will surely attain his desire.'
2fb9e76073c7 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:00:04 PM UTC
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Drona stands beside Yudhishthira 'like Death, the Destroyer,' and the cry 'the king is taken!' runs through the army: for a moment it seems that the design of evil is about to be fulfilled. So in the hour of gravest threat the spirit of an army wavers, and fear outruns the event. But it is precisely at this moment, as what follows will show, that Arjuna arrives — for the protection of the righteous does not withdraw in the final hour. The verse teaches that evil sometimes comes to the very brink of fulfilling its design, so that its futility may be shown the more clearly before a sudden deliverance; that fear anticipates disaster, seeing it as already accomplished before its time; and that in the hour when the protected one seems abandoned, his protector is nearest of all.