Shloka 41
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
मैवं पुत्रीति शोकार्ता पश्य मामपि दु:खिताम् । मन्ये लोकविनाशो<यं कालपर्यायनोदित:
maivaṃ putrīti śokārtā paśya mām api duḥkhitām | manye lokavināśo 'yaṃ kālaparyāyanoditaḥ ||
„Gräme dich nicht und rufe: ‚Mein Sohn!‘ Sieh auch mich an, vom Schmerz getroffen. Ich glaube, dieser Untergang der Welt ist aus der Wendung des Zeitkreises hervorgegangen.“
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames personal bereavement within a larger moral-cosmic vision: overwhelming loss is not only individual but part of a wider collapse brought about by Kāla (Time). It urges the grieving person to temper exclusive attachment (‘my son!’) by recognizing shared suffering and the inexorable turning of Time.
In the Stree Parva’s lamentation setting after the great war, a sorrow-stricken woman cries out for her son. Another grieving woman responds, asking her not to lament in that way and to notice that she too is suffering, interpreting the widespread devastation as the outcome of Time’s cyclical course.