Mahabharata — Karna Parva, Shloka 17
धर्मरहस्योपदेशः
Dharma-rahasya Instruction: Vows, Truth, and Non-injury
त्रैलोक्यस्य समस्तस्य शक्तः क्रुद्धों निवारणे । बिभर्ति सदृशं रूप॑ युगान्ताग्निसमप्र भम्
trailokyasya samastasya śaktaḥ kruddho nivāraṇe | bibharti sadṛśaṃ rūpaṃ yugāntāgnisamaprabham ||
Śalya said: “When he is enraged, he is capable of checking and holding back the whole of the three worlds. For he now bears a form whose radiance is like the fire at the end of an age—an apocalyptic blaze.”
शल्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how uncontrolled anger can become a world-stopping force, likened to cosmic destruction. Ethically, it underscores the need for restraint in war: immense power, when driven by wrath, approaches the scale of pralaya (cataclysm), making self-control a crucial aspect of dharma.
Śalya is describing a warrior’s terrifying, anger-fueled might, saying that in his rage he could restrain even the three worlds, because he has assumed a form blazing like the end-of-age fire. The line functions as heightened battlefield rhetoric, magnifying the immediacy and danger of the moment.