Shloka 56
आपक्षुक्षुभिरे सर्वाश्चकम्पे च वसुंधरा । पर्वताश्च व्यशीर्यन्त दिशो नागाश्ष मोहिता:
āpakṣu-kṣubhire sarvāś cakampe ca vasundharā | parvatāś ca vyaśīryanta diśo nāgāś ca mohitāḥ ||
Vyāsa said: As the winged creatures were thrown into turmoil, the very earth trembled. Mountains began to split and crumble, and the quarters of the sky—along with the great serpents—were struck with bewilderment. The scene signals a cosmic disturbance, as if nature itself recoils at the moral weight and violence of the war’s unfolding events.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse conveys that extreme violence and moral collapse in war are not merely human events; they reverberate through the cosmos. Nature’s trembling and confusion functions as an ethical mirror, implying that adharma destabilizes the world-order (ṛta/dharma) itself.
Vyāsa describes ominous portents: birds are in frantic upheaval, the earth shakes, mountains crack, the directions seem disturbed, and even the Nāgas are bewildered. These signs heighten the sense that a decisive, catastrophic moment in the Kurukṣetra war is underway.