Shloka 33
अपध्यास्यन्ति मे देव मृतेष्वेभ्यो बिभेम्यहम् । भगवन्! मैं पापसे डरती हूँ। प्रभो! मुझपर प्रसन्न होइये। जब मैं लोगोंके प्यारे पुत्रों, मित्रों, भाइयों, माताओं, पिताओं तथा पतियोंको मारने लगूँगी, देव! उस समय उनके सम्बन्धी इन लोगोंके मेरे द्वारा मारे जानेपर सदा मेरा अनिष्ट-चिन्तन करेंगे। अतः मैं इन सबसे बहुत डरती हूँ,अधर्मो नास्ति ते मृत्यो संहरन्त्या इमा: प्रजा: । मया चोक्तं मृषा भद्रे भविता न कथंचन “मृत्यो! इन प्रजाओंका संहार करनेसे तुझे अधर्म नहीं होगा। भटद्रे! मेरी कही हुई बात किसी प्रकार झूठी नहीं हो सकती
nārada uvāca |
apadhyāsyanti me deva mṛteṣv ebhyo bibhemy aham |
adharmo nāsti te mṛtyo saṁharantyā imāḥ prajāḥ |
mayā coktaṁ mṛṣā bhadre bhavitā na kathaṁcana ||
Nārada said: “O Lord, I am afraid of these dead. When I begin to strike down people’s beloved sons, friends, brothers, mothers, fathers, and husbands, their relatives—seeing them slain by me—will constantly brood over my ruin and curse me in their hearts. Therefore I fear them greatly. But (you say), ‘O Death, there will be no unrighteousness for you in destroying these creatures; and, O gentle one, what I have spoken cannot in any way prove false.’”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames death and destruction within a dharmic-cosmic order: the agent of death fears moral blame and hostile remembrance, yet is reassured that fulfilling an ordained function (the taking of life when time has come) is not adharma, and that the divine word establishing this order cannot be false.
Nārada reports a dialogue in which Death (Mṛtyu), personified and emotionally troubled, expresses fear of being hated and cursed by the bereaved when she kills their loved ones; the addressed Lord responds by affirming that her act of destroying creatures is not unrighteous and that the divine assurance will not prove untrue.