वैशंपायन उवाच
तथा कर्णं युधि वरं कीर्तयन्तं पुनः पुनः ॥
आशीविषवद् उच्छ्वस्य धृतराष्ट्रो ऽब्रवीद् इदम् ॥
यत् तद् वैकर्तनं कर्णम् अगमद् वो मनस् तदा ॥
अप्य् अपश्यत राधेयं सूतपुत्रं तनुत्यजम् ॥
अपि तन् न मृषाकार्षीद् युधि सत्यपराक्रमः ॥
संभ्रान्तानां तदार्तानां त्रस्तानां त्राणम् इच्छताम् ॥
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca
tathā karṇaṃ yudhi varaṃ kīrtayantaṃ punaḥ punaḥ ||
āśīviṣavad ucchvasya dhṛtarāṣṭro 'bravīd idam ||
yat tad vaikartanaṃ karṇam agamad vo manas tadā ||
apy apaśyata rādheyaṃ sūtaputraṃ tanutyajam ||
api tan na mṛṣākārṣīd yudhi satyaparākramaḥ ||
saṃbhrāntānāṃ tadārtānāṃ trastānāṃ trāṇam icchatām ||
When [you] thus, again and again, praised Karna as excellent in battle, Dhritarashtra, hissing like a venomous serpent, said this: "When your thoughts turned then toward Vaikartana Karna — did you see Radheya, the son of a suta, sparing not his life? Did he not turn that [hope] into something not in vain, [he] whose valor is genuine — for the bewildered, the afflicted, the terrified, craving protection?"
1f84aeef9dce · प्रकाशित 19 जुल॰ 2026, 2:46:26 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Dhritarashtra 'hisses like a serpent': the image betrays a hidden malice and the impatient hope of a blind man who, even in his grief over Bhishma, has already clung with all his heart to a new support. The very form of his questions — 'did you see? did he not turn it into something not in vain?' — reveals that he seeks not the truth of what happened but confirmation of his own craving for victory. It is telling that he calls his own people 'suffering,' seeking 'protection' — but protection is sought not from dharma but from a mortal hand. The verse teaches that a partial heart, even in the hour of loss, at once reforges its hope onto a new object; and that one who questions out of a craving for victory, not out of love for truth, is bound to hear only news of ruin.