सशैलसागरवनां नानाजनपदाकुलाम् ॥
ग्रसेद् व्यूहः क्षितिं सर्वाम् इति भूतानि मेनिरे ॥
बहुरथमनुजाश्वपत्तिनागं; प्रतिभयनिस्वनम् अद्भुताभरूपम् ॥
अहितहृदयभेदनं महद् वै; शकटम् अवेक्ष्य कृतं ननन्द राजा ॥
saśailasāgaravanāṃ nānājanapadākulām ||
grased vyūhaḥ kṣitiṃ sarvām iti bhūtāni menire ||
bahurathamanujāśvapattināgaṃ; pratibhayanisvanam adbhutābharūpam ||
ahitahṛdayabhedanaṃ mahad vai; śakaṭam avekṣya kṛtaṃ nananda rājā ||
"This formation would swallow the whole earth -- with its mountains, oceans, and forests, full of many lands" -- so thought the beings. With its multitude of chariots, men, horses, foot, and elephants, with a terrifying roar, of wondrous and fearsome form, rending the hearts of foes -- beholding that great cart-formation accomplished, the king [Duryodhana] rejoiced.
a758cb25d290 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:45:02 PM UTC
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The chapter closes with Duryodhana's joy at the sight of a formation that would "graset kṣitiṃ sarvām", seem to swallow the whole earth. But this joy before the immensity of a defense is the last triumph of the doomed: all this might is raised against one man, at whose side stands Krishna. It is telling that the king's rejoicing rests on the sheltering of the guilty, not on the rightness of the cause. The verse teaches that joy propped on the strength of wrongdoing is short-lived: however fearsome the formation that delights the unrighteous, it collapses before the will of the Lord; and triumph over an illusory impregnability is only the eve of its fall.