Shloka 8
भीष्मस्य दुर्योधनं प्रति उपालम्भः
Bhīṣma’s Reproof to Duryodhana
आजपचघान सुसंक्रुद्ध:/ कालान्तकयमोपम: । वज्रकी गड़गड़ाहटके समान भयंकर गर्जना करके काल
sañjaya uvāca | ajapacaghānaḥ susaṃkruddhaḥ kālāntaka-yamopamaḥ | vajrakī-gaḍagaḍāhaṭa-samānāṃ bhayaṅkarāṃ garjanāṃ kṛtvā kāla-antaka-yama-sadṛśa-krodha-bharaḥ sa rākṣaso bhīṣaṇa-rūpaṃ kṛtvā prajvalita-triśūlaṃ haste gṛhītvā nānā-vidhaiḥ astra-śastraiḥ sampannaiḥ mahā-rākṣasaiḥ saha āgatya tava senāyāḥ saṃhāram ārabdhavān | tam āpatantaṃ samprekṣya saṃkruddhaṃ bhīma-darśanam |
Sanjaya said: Ajapacaghāna, blazing with wrath and like Time, Death, and Yama, loosed a terrifying roar like the rumbling crash of a thunderbolt. Assuming a dreadful form, he seized a flaming trident and, accompanied by huge rakshasas armed with many kinds of weapons, advanced and began the slaughter of your army. Seeing him rushing in—wrathful and fearsome to behold—(the warriors reacted accordingly).
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how uncontrolled wrath (krodha) becomes a force likened to Time and Death—overwhelming, indiscriminate, and ethically corrosive. In the Mahabharata’s war setting, such imagery warns that when rage governs action, destruction expands beyond strategic necessity and pushes the conflict further from dharma.
Sanjaya reports that the rakshasa Ajapacaghāna, roaring terribly and wielding a flaming trident, arrives with other heavily armed rakshasas and begins cutting down the Kaurava forces. The closing phrase sets up the next action: warriors observe this fearsome, charging attacker and respond.