Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1, Verse 9

अन्ये च बहवः शूरा मदर्थे त्यक्तजीविताः | नानाशस्त्रप्रहरणाः सर्वे युद्धविशारदाः ||

anye ca bahavaḥ śūrā madarthe tyaktajīvitāḥ nānā-śastra-praharaṇāḥ sarve yuddha-viśāradāḥ

And many other heroes too, ready to give up their lives for my sake — armed with various weapons, and all of them skilled in warfare.

Duryodhana says 'many heroes ready to give up their lives for my sake' (madarthe tyaktajīvitāḥ). Not for the kingdom, not for justice — for him, personally. This reveals a deeply narcissistic framing — he has made an entire war about his own ego. We do this too. When every challenge becomes about 'my reputation', 'my pride', 'my validation', we have quietly stopped serving anything larger. We are just protecting a fragile sense of self. This verse teaches us to catch this pattern early — when we make everything revolve around 'me', we lose perspective and burn relationships.