Shloka 84
न पक्षिणो बश्रमुरन्तरिक्षे तदा महास्त्रेण कृतेडन्धकारे
na pakṣiṇo baśramur antarīkṣe tadā mahāstreṇa kṛte 'ndhakāre
Sañjaya said: When that mighty weapon was unleashed and darkness spread across the sky, even the birds could not move about in the mid-air—such was the blinding, ominous obscuration produced by the use of great astral power in war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how the deployment of overwhelming weapons in war can disturb the natural order and create terror beyond the battlefield, implicitly raising ethical concern about the use of destructive power that blinds and disorients all beings.
Sañjaya describes the immediate effect of a great astra: darkness fills the sky so completely that even birds cannot fly in the air, signaling a frightening, unnatural condition produced by the weapon’s force.