Sanskrit
अत्र शूरा महेष्वासा भीमार्जुनसमा युधि । युयुधानो विराटश्च द्रुपदश्च महारथः ॥
atra śūrā maheṣvāsā bhīmārjunasamā yudhi yuyudhāno virāṭaś ca drupadaś ca mahārathaḥ
Translation
Heroes are these, mighty bowmen, to Bhîma and Arjuna equal in battle: Yuyudhâna, Virâta, and Drupada of the great car.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Duryodhana begins his roll call of the Pândava side’s commanders, measuring each one against Bhîma and Arjuna to make the threat concrete. Verses 4 through 6 continue this list before he turns, in verse 7, to naming his own side’s leaders in contrast.
Study deeper
Word by word
- atraअत्र
- here
- śūrāशूरा
- heroes
- maheṣvāsāमहेष्वासा
- great archers
- bhīmārjuna-samāभीमार्जुन-समा
- equal in battle to Bhīma and Arjuna
- yudhiयुधि
- in battle
- yuyudhānoयुयुधानो
- Yuyudhāna — Sātyaki
- virāṭaś caविराटश् च
- and Virāṭa
- drupadaś caद्रुपदश् च
- and Drupada
- mahārathaḥमहारथः
- a great chariot-warrior
Commentary
Site Commentary
To make an unfamiliar army’s size register at all, Duryodhana doesn’t cite numbers — he gives comparisons: this warrior equals Bhîma, that one equals Arjuna. Measuring an unfamiliar magnitude against a known one is often the only way it actually lands; raw scale by itself rarely produces the same gut-level accounting that a concrete comparison does.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When sizing up an unfamiliar challenge — a new job, a new city, a new diagnosis — anchor it to something you already understand well rather than trying to grasp its raw scale directly; comparison is often the only way magnitude actually registers.
Professional
- When explaining a project's scope or an incident's severity to leadership, compare it to a known past event rather than citing raw metrics that won't land on their own — Duryodhana's move of naming equivalents works because comparison beats abstraction.
Family & Social
- When explaining a hard decision's real scale to family, reach for a comparison to something they already understand rather than abstract numbers — it's how magnitude actually gets felt, not just heard.
Ask yourself
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