आरुजन्न् इव मे प्राणान् मोहयन्न् अपि सायकैः ॥
प्रहर्षयति मा भूयः सौभद्रः परवीरहा ॥
अति मा नन्दयत्य् एष सौभद्रो विचरन् रणे ॥
अन्तरं यस्य संरब्धा न पश्यन्ति महारथाः ॥
अस्यतो लघुहस्तस्य दिशः सर्वा महेषुभिः ॥
न विशेषं प्रपश्यामि रणे गाण्डीवधन्वनः ॥
ārujann iva me prāṇān mohayann api sāyakaiḥ ||
praharṣayati mā bhūyaḥ saubhadraḥ paravīrahā ||
ati mā nandayaty eṣa saubhadro vicaran raṇe ||
antaraṃ yasya saṃrabdhā na paśyanti mahārathāḥ ||
asyato laghuhastasya diśaḥ sarvā maheṣubhiḥ ||
na viśeṣaṃ prapaśyāmi raṇe gāṇḍīvadhanvanaḥ ||
"As though crushing my very life and confounding me with his arrows, the son of Subhadra, destroyer of enemy warriors, delights me all the more. This son of Subhadra, roaming in battle, gladdens me beyond measure — the fiercest of the great chariot-warriors cannot find a gap in him. In him, the nimble one, loosing great arrows in every direction, I see no difference in battle from the wielder of Gandiva [Arjuna]."
764d23303803 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:30:04 PM UTC
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Drona confesses to something wondrous: the very foe striking him "delights him all the more" — the youth's mastery captivates the teacher even under his own arrows. And the highest praise: "I see no difference from Arjuna." Thus a connoisseur's selfless love of perfection overcomes in him both pain and enmity. Yet these same lips, honoring the youth as a second Arjuna, are about to pronounce how to destroy him. The verse teaches that true greatness captivates even the one it harms; that pure love of mastery knows no self-interest or enmity, rejoicing in perfection wherever it comes from; and that Drona's tragedy is that he, sincerely seeing Arjuna himself in the youth and loving that perfection, will nevertheless betray him at the bidding of an unjust duty — and the praise from his lips will become the prologue to his own fateful counsel.