तं चेन् मृत्युः सर्वहरो ऽभिरक्षेत्; सदाप्रमत्तः समरे किरीटिनम् ॥
तथापि हन्तास्मि समेत्य संख्ये; यास्यामि वा भीष्मपथा यमाय ॥
न त्व् एवाहं न गमिष्यामि तेषां; मध्ये शूराणां तत् तथाहं ब्रवीमि ॥
मित्रद्रुहो दुर्बलभक्तयो ये; पापात्मानो न ममैते सहायाः ॥
taṃ cen mṛtyuḥ sarvaharo 'bhirakṣet; sadāpramattaḥ samare kirīṭinam ||
tathāpi hantāsmi sametya saṃkhye; yāsyāmi vā bhīṣmapathā yamāya ||
na tv evāhaṃ na gamiṣyāmi teṣāṃ; madhye śūrāṇāṃ tat tathāhaṃ bravīmi ||
mitradruho durbalabhaktayo ye; pāpātmāno na mamaite sahāyāḥ ||
«Even if all-taking Death, ever vigilant, were to guard the Diademed One [Arjuna] in battle, I shall still slay him, having met him in combat, or else I shall go by the path of Bhishma to Yama. But it shall not be that I do not advance into the midst of those heroes — this I declare. But betrayers of friends, who cling to the strong [and serve for gain], evil-souled — such as these are not my comrades.»
641e4f4999b2 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 14:46:26 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
Karna's twofold vow — «I shall slay or fall» — frees him from the fear of death: one who has accepted both outcomes in advance can no longer be shaken. But behind this fearlessness stands, once again, loyalty as the highest value: he rejects «betrayers of friends who cling to the strong» — those who serve not out of love but out of calculation, running to where fortune smiles. In this Karna stands above many: he stays with his friend when the friend grows weak, not only when he is strong. And yet his unbending loyalty is again given to an unjust cause. The verse teaches that fearlessness is born of accepting death; that loyalty born of love, not of gain, is a rare virtue; but that even this virtue, once attached to untruth, leads the loyal one to ruin together with the one to whom he is loyal.