न च तच्छुश्रुवे कश्चित् तेषां संवदतां नृप । ऋते भीष्म महाबाहुं मां चापि मुनितेजसा
na ca tac chuśruve kaścit teṣāṁ saṁvadatāṁ nṛpa | ṛte bhīṣma-mahābāhuṁ māṁ cāpi munitejasā ||
Sañjaya said: “O King, no one heard the words of those sages as they conversed—except mighty-armed Bhīṣma and myself. I was able to hear it only through the spiritual potency of the sage Vyāsa.”
संजय उवाच
True knowledge in the epic is often mediated by spiritual authority: Sañjaya’s access to hidden events depends not on ordinary senses but on the sage Vyāsa’s tejas, underscoring the primacy of ṛṣi-śakti and trustworthy transmission.
Sañjaya tells Dhṛtarāṣṭra that a certain conversation among sages was inaudible to everyone else; only Bhīṣma and Sañjaya could hear it, and Sañjaya’s hearing was enabled specifically by Vyāsa’s supernatural power.