Shloka 23
ईदृशो लोकथधर्मो<यं धात्रा निर्दिष्ट उच्यते । विनाश: सर्वभूतानां कालपर्यायमागत:
īdṛśo lokadharmo 'yaṃ dhātrā nirdiṣṭa ucyate | vināśaḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ kālaparyāyam āgataḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Such is the law of this mortal world; it is said to have been ordained by the Creator himself. Therefore, in the course of time, the hour of destruction inevitably comes upon all living beings.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the inevitability of mortality: the world’s order (lokadharma) is such that, as ordained by the Creator, time (kāla) eventually brings destruction to all beings. It frames death not as an anomaly but as a universal rule.
Sañjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra in the Shalya Parva war setting, pauses to state a reflective principle: amid the devastation of battle, the coming of death is presented as the natural, time-driven course decreed by the cosmic order.