ततो ऽप्रहृष्टः कौन्तेयः केशवं वाक्यम् अब्रवीत् ॥
न मे प्रियं महाबाहो यन् माम् अभ्येति सात्यकिः ॥
न हि जानामि वृत्तान्तं धर्मराजस्य केशव ॥
सात्वतेन विहीनः स यदि जीवति वा न वा ॥
एतेन हि महाबाहो रक्षितव्यः स पार्थिवः ॥
तम् एष कथम् उत्सृज्य मम कृष्ण पदानुगः ॥
tato 'prahṛṣṭaḥ kaunteyaḥ keśavaṃ vākyam abravīt ||
na me priyaṃ mahābāho yan mām abhyeti sātyakiḥ ||
na hi jānāmi vṛttāntaṃ dharmarājasya keśava ||
sātvatena vihīnaḥ sa yadi jīvati vā na vā ||
etena hi mahābāho rakṣitavyaḥ sa pārthivaḥ ||
tam eṣa katham utsṛjya mama kṛṣṇa padānugaḥ ||
Then Kaunteya, not gladdened, spoke a word to Keshava: "Not dear to me, o mighty-armed one, is it that Satyaki comes to me. For I do not know the tidings of the King of Dharma, o Keshava — he, deprived of Satvata [Satyaki], whether he lives or not. By him indeed, o mighty-armed one, that king ought to have been guarded; how then, having abandoned him, has he come to me, Krishna, my follower?"
9232c281e6b7 · published Jul 19, 2026, 4:25:13 PM UTC
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Arjuna is not glad at his friend's arrival: the joy of meeting is clouded by anxiety for the abandoned Yudhishthira. It is significant that he honors not the valor of the feat but the broken duty of guarding: fulfilling the entrusted task matters more than winning glory. The verse teaches that fidelity to an assigned charge outweighs a brilliant act of self-will; and he who leaves his appointed post for another feat, however valorous, leaves behind a breach that the wise dread.