Shloka 5
मायासभायां दुर्योधनस्य अवमान-प्रसङ्गः
Duryodhana’s Humiliation in the Hall of Māyā
नच वै तस्य मृत्युर्वे न काल: प्रत्युपस्थित: । मृत्यु्न्तास्य शस्त्रेण स चोत्पन्नो नराधिप
na ca vai tasya mṛtyur vā na kālaḥ pratyupasthitaḥ | mṛtyuṃ tasyāśastreṇa sa cotpanno narādhipa ||
Bhīṣma said: “O king, neither has his death arrived, nor has the appointed time come upon him. The one who will be the cause of his death—and who will slay him by a weapon—has already been born elsewhere.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma frames death as governed by kāla (the destined time) and causal conditions: until the proper time and the destined agent/cause are present, death does not occur. This highlights a Mahābhārata theme that human action operates within larger moral-cosmic order (kāla/daiva), urging restraint and discernment rather than impulsive violence.
Bhīṣma addresses a king and explains that the person in question is not yet fated to die at this moment. He adds that the future killer—the one who will bring about that death by weapon—has already been born elsewhere, implying an unfolding destiny that cannot be forced prematurely.