Shloka 6
पुन:पुनर्न मृष्यामि हतं देवव्रतं रणे । न हतो जामदग्न्येन दिव्यैरस्त्रैरयं पुरा
punaḥ punaḥ na mṛṣyāmi hataṃ devavrataṃ raṇe | na hataḥ jāmadagnyena divyair astrair ayaṃ purā ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “Again and again I cannot bear it—that Devavrata (Bhīṣma) has been slain in battle. In former times he was not slain even by Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma) with celestial weapons; how then has he now fallen?”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how attachment and grief distort judgment: Dhṛtarāṣṭra measures Bhīṣma’s fall against past invincibility, revealing the human tendency to resist impermanence and to seek rational explanations when fate overturns expectations.
After hearing of Bhīṣma’s downfall in the Kurukṣetra war, Dhṛtarāṣṭra laments that the warrior once undefeated even by Paraśurāma’s divine weapons has now been brought down, expressing shock and sorrow at the turning of the war.