Shloka 58
Bhīṣma-nipāta-saṃvāda — Sañjaya’s Report of Bhīṣma’s Fall (भीष्मनिपातसंवादः)
यच्छुत्वा पुरुषव्याप्र॑ हतं भीष्म न दीर्यते । मैं समझता हूँ कि भीष्मजीके मारे जानेपर मेरे बेटे दुःखके कारण अत्यन्त शोकमग्न हो गये होंगे। संजय! मेरा हृदय निश्चय ही लोहेका बना हुआ है, जो पुरुषसिंह भीष्मको मारा गया सुनकर भी विदीर्ण नहीं हो रहा है ।। यस्मिन्नस्त्राणि मेधा च नीतिश्व पुरुषर्षभे
dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca | yac chrutvā puruṣavyāghra hataṃ bhīṣmaṃ na dīryate | manye me hṛdayaṃ lohajaṃ yat puruṣarṣabhaṃ bhīṣmaṃ hataṃ śrutvāpi na vidīryate ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “O tiger among men! Hearing that Bhīṣma has been slain, my heart does not break apart. I think my sons must have been plunged into extreme grief when Bhīṣma fell. Sañjaya, surely my heart is made of iron, since even on hearing that the bull among men, Bhīṣma, has been killed, it is not torn asunder.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how attachment and shock in war can numb moral feeling: Dhṛtarāṣṭra recognizes a troubling hardness of heart—an ethical self-indictment—because the fall of a revered elder (Bhīṣma) should naturally shatter one’s inner composure.
After hearing from Sañjaya that Bhīṣma has been struck down in battle, Dhṛtarāṣṭra reacts with disbelief at his own emotional state: he imagines his sons’ intense sorrow and calls his own heart ‘iron’ for not breaking upon the news.