Shloka 13
न नूनं विद्यते सत्यं मानुषे किंचिदेव हि । यत्र त्वं पुरुषव्याप्र शेषे पांसुषु रूषित:
na nūnaṁ vidyate satyaṁ mānuṣe kiṁcid eva hi | yatra tvaṁ puruṣavyāghra śeṣe pāṁsuṣu rūṣitaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Surely, in the human world there is nothing that can be called enduring truth; everything proves perishable. For see—where you, O tiger among men, lie at the end, smeared with dust.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of human greatness: even the noblest warrior-king can end up fallen and dust-covered, revealing the impermanence of worldly power and the need for sober ethical reflection amid war.
Sañjaya, reporting the battlefield aftermath, addresses a fallen hero as “tiger among men,” lamenting that in the human realm nothing seems truly lasting when such a great person lies at the end, smeared with dust.