Shloka 76
अस्त्रयुद्धे द्रौणिपार्थसंघर्षः — Karṇa’s Bhārgavāstra and the Search for Yudhiṣṭhira
Chapter 45
शल्य उवाच वरुणं को<म्भसा हन्यादिन्धनेन च पावकम् | को वानिलं निगृह्नीयात् पिबेद् वा को महार्णवम्,शल्यने कहा--कर्ण! कौन ऐसा वीर है जो जलसे वरुणको और ईंधनसे अग्निको मार सके? वायुको कौन कैद कर सकता है अथवा महासागरको कौन पी सकता है?
śalya uvāca varuṇaṃ ko 'mbhasā hanyād indhanena ca pāvakam | ko vānilaṃ nigṛhnīyāt pibed vā ko mahārṇavam ||
Śalya said: “Who could strike down Varuṇa with water, or extinguish Fire with fuel? Who could restrain the Wind, or who could drink up the great ocean?”
शल्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches humility and discernment: some forces are intrinsically beyond conquest, so prideful attempts to overpower them are futile and invite ruin—especially in the moral pressure-cooker of war.
Śalya, speaking amid the Karṇa-parvan war context, uses a chain of rhetorical questions—water vs Varuṇa, fuel vs fire, restraining wind, drinking the ocean—to emphasize impossibility and to caution against overconfidence in a contest where the opponent or circumstance is effectively ‘unassailable.’