Shloka 16
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
न त्वं हन्ता न भीमो<यं नार्जुनो न यमावपि । काल: पर्यायधर्मेण प्राणानादत्त देहिनाम्
na tvaṁ hantā na bhīmo ’yaṁ nārjuno na yamāv api | kālaḥ paryāyadharmeṇa prāṇān ādatta dehinām ||
Vyāsa sprach: „Nicht du bist der Töter, noch dieser Bhīma, noch Arjuna, noch gar die Zwillingssöhne Mādrīs. Die Zeit selbst, Kāla, die ihrem festgesetzten Lauf folgt, nimmt den verkörperten Wesen den Lebenshauch. Darum hefte die Schuld nicht an Personen, als wären sie die letzte Ursache: Das Schicksal, das sich durch die Zeit entfaltet, lenkt das Scheiden der Leben.“
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse shifts ultimate causality from individual warriors to Kāla (Time): lives end according to an impersonal cosmic order. Ethically, it counsels restraint in self-blame and hatred, urging a dharmic understanding that personal agency operates within a larger law of time and destiny.
Vyāsa addresses a listener burdened by the idea of having ‘killed’ others (in the war context). He clarifies that neither the addressed person nor Bhīma, Arjuna, or the twins are the ultimate slayers; rather, Time, arriving in due sequence, takes the life-breath of embodied beings.