Shloka 34
पित्रा तुष्टेन मे पूर्व यदा कालीमुदावहम्
sañjaya uvāca | pitrā tuṣṭena me pūrvaṃ yadā kālīm udāvaham, atāḍayan raṇe bhīṣmaṃ sahitāḥ sarva-sṛñjayāḥ |
Sañjaya said: In former times, when my father was pleased with me—when I brought about Kāli’s marriage—then, on the battlefield, all the Sṛñjayas, united together, began to strike Bhīṣma from every side. With dreadful weapons—śataghni, iron clubs, parighas, axes, maces, pestles, spears, slings, golden-feathered arrows, śakti-darts, tomaras, kampanas, nārācas, vatsadantas, and bhuśuṇḍīs—they tormented him on all fronts. (Here Bhīṣma recalls the boons granted by his father: that he would die only when he wished, and that no one in battle could slay him; therefore he deems the time has come to accept death by his own will.)
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights Bhīṣma’s extraordinary ethical predicament: protected by boons and bound by vows, he cannot be slain by others and must choose the moment of death himself. It frames death not merely as defeat but as a conscious, dharma-informed acceptance when one’s role in the moral order has reached its limit.
Sañjaya describes the Sṛñjaya warriors attacking Bhīṣma from all sides with many kinds of weapons. The scene underscores Bhīṣma’s near-invulnerability in battle and sets up his reflection on the boons received earlier—implying that only his own will can bring his fall.