Shloka 23
यह प्राणधारणरूपी धर्म अनित्य है, एक-न-एक दिन इसका अन्त होना निश्चित है, फिर भी विधाताने न जाने क्यों प्रमादवश मेरे जीवनका भी शीघ्र ही अन्त नहीं नियत कर दिया। तभी तो आयु मुझे छोड़ नहीं रही है ।। हा कृष्ण द्वारकावासिन् क्वासि संकर्षणानुज । कस्मान्न त्रायसे दुःखान्मां चेमांश्व॒ नरोत्तमान्,हा द्वारकावासी श्रीकृष्ण! तुम कहाँ हो! बलरामजीके छोटे भैया! मुझको तथा इन नरश्रेष्ठ पाण्डवोंको इस दुःखसे क्यों नहीं बचाते?
ha kṛṣṇa dvārakāvāsin kvāsi saṅkarṣaṇānuja | kasmān na trāyase duḥkhān māṃ cemaṃś ca narottamān ||
“This dharma of sustaining life is impermanent; one day it must surely end. Yet I know not why the Ordainer, through some negligence, did not appoint a swift end even for my life; therefore my span does not leave me. Alas, O Kṛṣṇa, dweller of Dvārakā—where are you? O younger brother of Saṅkarṣaṇa (Balarāma), why do you not rescue me, and these best of men, the Pāṇḍavas, from this sorrow?”
वैशमग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
In distress, the righteous may openly lament and still turn toward the divine for refuge; the verse highlights human vulnerability and the ethical expectation that Kṛṣṇa, as ally of dharma, protects the virtuous—even when his help seems delayed.
A speaker (introduced as Vaiśaṃpāyana) voices a cry to Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā, calling him the younger brother of Balarāma and asking why he does not save the speaker and the Pāṇḍavas—described as ‘best of men’—from their present suffering.