Shloka 28
“राजन! जैसे बरसती हुई जलधाराओंसे सम्पूर्ण दिशाएँ ढक जाती हैं, उसी प्रकार आज सब लोग मेरे तीखे बाणोंसे सम्पूर्ण दिशाओंको आच्छादित हुई देखेंगे ।। विकिरन् शरजालानि सर्वतो भैरवस्वनान् | शत्रून् निपातयिष्यामि महावात इव द्रुमान्,'जैसे आँधी वृक्षोंको गिरा देती है, उसी प्रकार मैं सब ओर बाणसमूहोंकी वर्षा करके भयंकर गर्जना करनेवाले शत्रुओंको मार गिराऊँगा
sañjaya uvāca | rājan! yathā varṣatībhir jaladhārābhiḥ samantato diśaḥ pracchādyante, tathā adya sarve janāḥ mama tīkṣṇaiḥ bāṇaiḥ samantato diśa āvṛtāḥ paśyanti | vikiran śarajālāni sarvato bhairavasvanān | śatrūn nipātayiṣyāmi mahāvāta iva drumān ||
Sañjaya said: “O King, just as the streaming sheets of rain veil every quarter of the sky, so today all men will behold the directions covered over by my sharp arrows. Scattering nets of arrows on every side, I shall strike down the foes who roar terribly—just as a mighty gale fells the trees.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the Mahābhārata’s recurring ethical tension: martial prowess and the kṣatriya drive for victory are celebrated through grand imagery, yet the very metaphors—rain that blots out the sky and a gale that fells trees—also underscore war’s indiscriminate, overwhelming destructiveness. It invites reflection on how heroic intent can coexist with catastrophic consequence.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, reports a warrior’s fierce declaration: he will unleash such a dense barrage of arrows that the directions seem covered, and he will topple roaring enemies like a storm topples trees. The focus is on the immediacy and scale of the impending assault.