Shloka 17
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
न तस्य मातापितरी नानुग्राह्मो हि कश्नन । कर्मसाक्षी प्रजानां यस्तेन कालेन संहृता:
na tasya mātāpitarī nānugrāhyo hi kaścana | karmasākṣī prajānāṃ yas tena kālena saṃhṛtāḥ ||
قال فياسا: «إن للزمن (كالا Kāla) لا والدين—لا أمّ ولا أب—ولا أحدَ يخصّه بفضلٍ أو محاباة. إنما الزمن وحده، الشاهد على أعمال جميع الكائنات، هو الذي أوقع الهلاك بأعدائك حين بلغوا ساعتهم المقدّرة.»
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Time (Kāla) is impartial and not subject to personal bias or favoritism; it functions as the instrument through which the results of beings’ actions ripen. Therefore, one should not reduce events—especially destruction in war—to mere personal agency alone, but see them within the larger moral causality of karma and the inevitability of time.
Vyāsa addresses the aftermath of conflict and reframes the fall of enemies: their destruction is attributed to Kāla, the cosmic force that arrives when the destined moment matures, and which ‘witnesses’ the karmic record of beings. This counsel aims to temper grief, pride, and blame by pointing to a broader, ethically grounded causation.