Shloka 17

भीष्मस्वप्न-स्मृत्युपाख्यानम् | Bhīṣma’s Dream-Linked Recollection of the Paraśurāma Combat

Devanagari script

अपि चैतन्मया राजन्‌ नारदे5पि निवेदितम्‌ | व्यासे चैव तथा कार्य तौ चोभौ मामवोचताम्‌

Transliteration

api caitanmāyā rājan nārade ’pi niveditam | vyāse caiva tathā kārya tau cobhau mām avocatām ||

Translation

Zudem, o König, habe ich diese Angelegenheit auch dem göttlichen Seher Nārada vorgetragen, und ebenso sollte sie Vyāsa übermittelt werden. Beide sagten zu mir: „O König, du sollst um die Tochter des Königs von Kāśī nicht im Geringsten trauern. Wer vermöchte durch menschliches Bemühen zu wenden, was das Schicksal verfügt hat?“

Word by Word

• {'api ca': 'moreover

• and further', 'etad': 'this (matter/event)', 'mayā': 'by me', 'rājan': 'O king (vocative)', 'nāradaḥ': 'Nārada (divine sage)', 'api': 'also

• even', 'niveditam': 'was reported/informed

• was submitted', 'vyāse': 'to Vyāsa (locative/dative sense in context)', 'ca eva': 'and indeed

• and also', 'tathā': 'likewise

• in the same way', 'kāryam': 'to be done

• proper/necessary action (here: ‘it should be conveyed’)', 'tau ubhau': 'those two

• both of them', 'mām': 'to me', 'avocatām': 'they said (dual perfect/aorist sense)', 'viṣādaḥ': 'grief

• dejection', 'daiva-vidhānam': 'the ordinance of fate

• divine dispensation', 'puruṣārtha': 'human effort

Speaker

राम उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Rājan (King)
• Nārada
• Vyāsa
• Kāśirāja (King of Kāśī)
• Kāśī (Vārāṇasī)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse emphasizes acceptance of daiva-vidhāna (destiny/divine ordinance) and counsels freedom from grief over outcomes that lie beyond one’s control, suggesting that puruṣārtha (human effort) cannot always overturn what is fated.

What is happening in the narrative?

The speaker tells the king that he consulted the sages Nārada and Vyāsa about the troubling matter concerning the daughter of the King of Kāśī, and both sages advised him not to lament, because destiny cannot be easily countermanded by personal effort.