Shloka 50
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 71 — Kṣatra-dharma Counsel, Public Legitimacy, and Mobilization
नात्मच्छन्देन भूतानां जीवितं मरणं तथा । नाप्यकाले सुखं प्राप्यं दु:खं वापि यदूत्तम,प्राणियोंक जीवन और मरण अपनी इच्छाके अनुसार नहीं होते हैं (यही दशा जय और पराजयकी भी है)। यदुश्रेष्ठी किसीको सुख अथवा दुःखकी प्राप्ति भी असमयमें नहीं होती है
nātmachandena bhūtānāṃ jīvitaṃ maraṇaṃ tathā | nāpyakāle sukhaṃ prāpyaṃ duḥkhaṃ vāpi yadūttama ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “The life and death of beings do not occur according to one’s personal wish; likewise, outcomes such as victory and defeat are not fully in one’s control. O best of the Yadus, neither happiness nor sorrow comes to anyone out of season—each arrives only when its proper time has ripened.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Human beings cannot command life and death—or even success and failure—purely by personal desire. Happiness and sorrow arise according to kāla (the ripening of time and conditions), encouraging humility, patience, and steadiness in dharma rather than anxiety over outcomes.
In Udyoga Parva, as war approaches and counsel is exchanged, Yudhiṣṭhira addresses Kṛṣṇa (called “Yadūttama”), reflecting on the limits of human control and the inevitability of time-governed results—framing an ethical stance of endurance and right action amid impending conflict.