Shloka 16
दुःखं नूनं कृतान्तस्य गतिं ज्ञातुं कथंचन । लोकानां च भवान् यत्र शेषे पांसुषु रूषित:,“निश्चय ही काल और लोकोंकी गतिको जानना किसी प्रकार भी कठिन ही है, जिसके अधीन होकर आप धूलमें सने हुए पड़े हैं
duḥkhaṃ nūnaṃ kṛtāntasya gatiṃ jñātuṃ kathaṃcana | lokānāṃ ca bhavān yatra śeṣe pāṃsuṣu rūṣitaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Surely it is grievous—and in truth exceedingly hard in any way—to comprehend the course ordained by Death (Time) and the destinies of beings. For under that very power you now lie here at the end, angered, your body smeared with dust.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the inscrutability of fate/time (kṛtānta) and the destinies of beings: even the mighty are brought down, and human understanding cannot fully grasp the hidden course by which death and time govern outcomes.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield aftermath, laments that the listener now lies fallen—dust-covered and embittered—highlighting how the power of Time/Death has reduced a great person to a helpless end.