Shloka 16
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
न त्वं हन्ता न भीमो<यं नार्जुनो न यमावपि । काल: पर्यायधर्मेण प्राणानादत्त देहिनाम्
na tvaṁ hantā na bhīmo ’yaṁ nārjuno na yamāv api | kālaḥ paryāyadharmeṇa prāṇān ādatta dehinām ||
Vyāsa said: “It is not you who are the slayer, nor is this Bhīma, nor Arjuna, nor even the twin sons of Mādrī. Time itself, moving in its appointed course, takes away the life-breath of embodied beings. Therefore, do not fasten guilt upon persons as though they alone were the ultimate cause; the unfolding of destiny through Time governs the departure of lives.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse shifts ultimate causality from individual warriors to Kāla (Time): lives end according to an impersonal cosmic order. Ethically, it counsels restraint in self-blame and hatred, urging a dharmic understanding that personal agency operates within a larger law of time and destiny.
Vyāsa addresses a listener burdened by the idea of having ‘killed’ others (in the war context). He clarifies that neither the addressed person nor Bhīma, Arjuna, or the twins are the ultimate slayers; rather, Time, arriving in due sequence, takes the life-breath of embodied beings.