Shloka 5
धनंजयस्य आश्वासनम्
Dhanaṃjaya’s Reassurance and the Opening Engagement
अस्त्राणां च बल॑ तेषां मानुषेषु प्रयुझजताम् । तच्च भीम॑ महद् युद्ध कृपार्जुनसमागमे । द्रष्टम भ्यागता देवा: स्वविमानै: पृथक् पृथक्
Vaiśampāyana uvāca | astrāṇāṃ ca balaṃ teṣāṃ mānuṣeṣu prayuñjatām | tac ca bhīmaṃ mahad yuddhaṃ kṛpārjuna-samāgame | draṣṭum abhyāgatā devāḥ svavimānaiḥ pṛthak pṛthak ||
Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Und um die Macht jener himmlischen Waffen zu schauen, wenn sie unter Menschen eingesetzt werden, kamen die Götter herbei—jeder einzeln in seinem eigenen Luftwagen—um jene furchtbare, große Schlacht zu sehen, die beim Zusammentreffen von Kṛpa und Arjuna entbrannte.“
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the extraordinary moral and cosmic weight of deploying divine weapons in human conflict: such acts are not merely personal feats but events of universal consequence, drawing even the gods as witnesses. It implicitly cautions that power (bala) must be handled with responsibility, since its use reverberates beyond the battlefield.
During the Virāṭa Parva battle sequence, Kṛpa and Arjuna come into direct confrontation. Their clash becomes so formidable—marked by the use and display of powerful astras—that the gods themselves arrive in separate vimānas to watch the great and terrifying combat.