Shloka 33
Abhimanyu’s Śrāddha; Vyāsa’s Assurance of the Unborn Heir (अभिमन्योः श्राद्धं तथा गर्भरक्षणोपदेशः)
सुभद्रे वासुदेवेन तथा सात्यकिना रणे | पित्रा च लालितो बाल: स हत: कालधर्मणा
subhadre vāsudevena tathā sātyakinā raṇe | pitrā ca lālito bālaḥ sa hataḥ kāladharmaṇā ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O Subhadrā, the boy who was cherished by Vāsudeva, by Sātyaki in the midst of battle, and by his father as well—he has been slain by the law of Time. His death has come as the inevitable course of mortality.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames death as governed by kāladharma—the inexorable order of Time—suggesting that even the most beloved and protected are subject to mortality. It supports an ethical stance of accepting impermanence while acknowledging grief.
After Subhadrā’s lament, she is being consoled: the speaker reminds her that Abhimanyu, though dearly loved by Kṛṣṇa (Vāsudeva), Sātyaki, and his father Arjuna, has nevertheless been taken by the inevitable course of Time.