Shloka 42
सहसतनेत्राशनितुल्यवीर्य कालानल व्यात्तमिवातिघोरम् । पिनाकनारायणचक्रसंनिभं भयड़्करं प्राणभृतां विनाशनम्
sahasratanetrāśanitulyavīrya kālānalavyāttamivātighoram | pinākanārāyaṇacakrasaṃnibhaṃ bhayaṅkaraṃ prāṇabhṛtāṃ vināśanam ||
Sañjaya said: “It was terrifying—its power like Indra’s thousand-eyed thunderbolt, like the gaping blaze of the fire of Time at the end of an age. Resembling Śiva’s Pināka and Nārāyaṇa’s discus, it struck dread into all living beings, a force made for the destruction of life.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames battlefield power through cosmic and divine metaphors—Indra’s thunderbolt, Time’s consuming fire, Śiva’s bow, and Viṣṇu’s discus—suggesting that in war human violence can resemble impersonal, world-ending forces. Ethically, it underscores the terror and moral weight of destruction: when weapons become ‘vināśana’ for living beings, the listener is pushed to reflect on restraint, responsibility, and the tragic cost that adharma-driven conflict unleashes.
Sañjaya is reporting to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, describing a fearsome weapon/force seen on the battlefield. He emphasizes its overwhelming, almost apocalyptic intensity by likening it to the greatest divine weapons and to the end-of-age fire, conveying how it inspires dread and threatens the lives of all combatants.