Shloka 973

Devanagari script

सम्पीडयति य: कालो वृद्धि वार्धुषिको यथा । जैसे ऋण देनेवाला पुरुष व्याजका हिसाब जोड़कर ऋण लेनेवालोंको तंग करता है, उसी प्रकार वह काल दिन, रात, मास, क्षण, काष्ठा, लव और कला तकका हिसाब लगाकर प्राणियोंको पीड़ा देता रहता है

Transliteration

sampīḍayati yaḥ kālo vṛddhi-vārdhuṣiko yathā |

Translation

Bhīṣma says: Time oppresses living beings, just as a moneylender who calculates interest and compounded increase harasses the borrower. In the same way, Time keeps a relentless account—of day and night, months, instants and ever-smaller measures—pressing creatures with unceasing burden and distress.

Word by Word

सम्पीडयतिafflicts, torments

यःwho

कालःtime

वृद्धिinterest (increase)

वार्धुषिकःmoneylender, usurer

यथाas, just as

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhishma

Time (Kāla)

moneylender/usurer (vārdhuṣika)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Time is inexorable and continually diminishes life; like a lender adding interest, it keeps adding up moments and thereby burdens beings. The teaching encourages vigilance, detachment, and ethical discipline in the face of inevitable decay.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhīṣma’s instruction during the Śānti Parva, he uses a social analogy familiar to listeners—an interest-taking moneylender—to explain how Kāla relentlessly ‘accounts’ for time-units and thereby afflicts all creatures.