Shloka 463
यदि स्वयं वज्रधरोडस्य गोप्ता तथापि याता पितृराजवेश्मनि । युद्धस्थलमें उस नागके ऐसा कहनेपर सूतपुत्र कर्णने उससे पूछा--“पहले यह तो बताओ कि ऐसा भयानक रूप धारण करनेवाले तुम हो कौन?” तब नागने कहा--'अर्जुनने मेरा अपराध किया है। मेरी माताका उनके द्वारा वध होनेके कारण मेरा उनसे वैर हो गया है। तुम मुझे नाग समझो। यदि साक्षात् वज्रधारी इन्द्र भी अर्जुनकी रक्षाके लिये आ जायाँ तो भी आज अर्जुनको यमलोकमें जाना ही पड़ेगा"
yadi svayaṁ vajradharo ’sya goptā tathāpi yātā pitṛrāja-veśmani |
Sanjaya said: “Even if Indra himself, wielder of the thunderbolt, were to come in person to protect Arjuna, still Arjuna must go today to the abode of Yama, Lord of the Fathers.” The words cast the Nāga’s vow of vengeance as inexorable fate: a private enmity, born of a felt wrong, is carried onto the battlefield as a moral claim to retribution, regardless of divine intervention.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the perceived inevitability of consequences once hatred and vengeance harden into a vow: even divine protection is declared powerless against what the speaker frames as destined retribution. Ethically, it warns how personal grievance can masquerade as ‘certainty’ or ‘justice’ in war.
In the Karṇa Parva battle context, a Nāga (serpent-being) proclaims that Arjuna is bound for Yama’s abode that very day, asserting that not even Indra’s direct protection can prevent it. This follows the Nāga’s enmity toward Arjuna and sets a tone of impending lethal intent.