Shloka 17
Adhyāya 160: Arjuna’s Envoy-Message—Critique of Borrowed Valor and Pre-dawn Mobilization
अनिलो वा वहेन्मेरुं द्यौर्वापि निपतेन्महीम् । युगं वा परिवर्तेत यद्येवं स््थादू यथा55तथ माम्,“तुम जैसा मुझसे कहते हो, वैसा ही यदि सम्भव हो जाय, तब तो वायु भी सुमेरु पर्वतको उठा ले, स्वर्गलोक पृथ्वीपर गिर पड़े अथवा युग ही बदल जाय
anilo vā vahen meruṃ dyaur vāpi nipaten mahīm | yugaṃ vā parivarteta yadyevaṃ syād yathā tathā mām ||
Ulūka said: “If what you say about me were to become true just as stated, then impossibilities would occur: the wind might carry off Mount Meru, heaven itself might fall upon the earth, or the very age (yuga) might be overturned.”
उलूक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates rhetorical hyperbole: when a claim violates established reality or character, it is dismissed as possible only if the cosmic order itself were overturned. Ethically, it reflects hardened hostility and refusal to concede—an attitude that escalates conflict rather than seeking reconciliation.
In Udyoga Parva’s pre-war exchanges, Ulūka speaks in a confrontational tone. He rejects what the other party says about him (or expects of him), declaring it so implausible that it would require impossible cosmic events—wind moving Meru, heaven falling to earth, or a yuga changing.