Shloka 18
पितृभ्यो देवताभ्यश्व गता वैवस्वतक्षयम्,परंतु उनका यह उद्योग सर्वथा निष्फल हो गया; क्योंकि हमलोगोंने उन सब माताओंके नवयुवक पुत्रोंको, जो विशुद्ध सुवर्णमय कुण्डलोंसे अलंकृत थे, मार डाला है। वे इस भूलोकके भोगोंके उपभोगका अवसर न पाकर देवताओं और पितरोंका ऋण उतारे बिना ही यमलोकमें चले गये
pitṛbhyo devatābhyaś ca gatā vaivasvatakṣayam; parantu teṣāṃ udyogaḥ sarvathā niṣphalaḥ saṃvṛttaḥ, yataḥ asmābhiḥ tāḥ sarvā mātaraḥ—yeṣāṃ navayuvakāḥ putrāḥ viśuddha-suvarṇamaya-kuṇḍalaiḥ alaṅkṛtāḥ—hatāḥ. te iha-lokasya bhogān anubhavituṃ avasaraṃ na prāpya, devatṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca pitṛ-ṛṇaṃ ca anapākṛtyaiva yama-lokaṃ gatāḥ.
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “They have gone to Vaivasvata’s abode—the realm of Yama—yet all the efforts made for the gods and the ancestors have become wholly fruitless. For we have slain those mothers’ very young sons, adorned with pure golden earrings. Without ever gaining the chance to enjoy the rightful experiences of this world, and without discharging their debts to the gods and to the forefathers, they have departed to Yama’s world.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames war-death as an ethical rupture: young men die before fulfilling life’s dharmic obligations—especially debts to gods and ancestors—so even well-meant ritual or social efforts become ‘fruitless’ when the lineage and its duties are cut off by violence.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Yudhiṣṭhira laments that many youths—adorned and in their prime—have been killed by their side, and thus have gone to Yama’s realm without enjoying worldly life or repaying obligations to gods and forefathers, intensifying his sense of culpability and sorrow.