Shloka 20
नैव देवा न गन्धर्वा नासुरा न च राक्षसा: । शक्तास्त्रातुं मया द्विष्टं सत्यमेतद् ब्रवीमि ते,“पिताजी! मैं आपसे यह सत्य कहता हूँ कि देवता, गन्धर्व, असुर तथा राक्षस भी मेरे शत्रुकी रक्षा करनेमें समर्थ नहीं हैं
naiva devā na gandharvā nāsurā na ca rākṣasāḥ | śaktāstrātuṃ mayā dviṣṭaṃ satyam etad bravīmi te |
Vaiśampāyana said: “Neither the gods, nor the Gandharvas, nor the Asuras, nor even the Rākṣasas can protect the one whom I have come to hate. This I tell you as the truth.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the force of unwavering intent: when hostility is firmly established, even extraordinary external powers cannot easily shield the target from the consequences. Ethically, it warns how destructive fixed enmity can become, overpowering ordinary safeguards and alliances.
In Vaiśampāyana’s narration, a speaker (addressing ‘you’) asserts that no class of superhuman beings—divine, celestial, or demonic—can protect the person whom the speaker has resolved to oppose. It functions as a dramatic intensification of threat and determination within the Udyoga Parva’s pre-war tensions.