Shloka 25
Duryodhana’s Account of Gandharva Defeat and the Pandavas’ Intervention (दुर्योधनवर्णितो गन्धर्वसंग्रामः)
ध्रुवं प्रवास्यत्यसमीरितो 5पि ध्रुवं प्रजास्यत्युत गर्भिणी या । ध्रुवं दिनादौ रजनीप्रणाश- स्तथा क्षपादौ च दिनप्रणाश:,“निश्चय ही बिना किसी प्रेरणाके भी हवा चलेगी ही, जो गर्भिणी है, वह समयपर अवश्य ही बच्चा जनेगी। दिनके आदिमें रजनीका नाश अवश्यम्भावी है तथा रात्रिके प्रारम्भमें दिनका भी अन्त होना निश्चित है। (इसी प्रकार पापका फल भी किसीके टाले नहीं टल सकता)
dhruvaṃ pravāsyaty asamīrito 'pi dhruvaṃ prajāsyaty uta garbhiṇī yā | dhruvaṃ dinādau rajanīpraṇāśas tathā kṣapādau ca dinapraṇāśaḥ ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “Even without being stirred, the wind will surely blow; and the woman who is with child will surely give birth in due time. At the beginning of day, the night’s end is inevitable; and at the beginning of night, the day’s end is equally certain. In the same way, the consequence of wrongdoing cannot be averted—its fruition comes by necessity.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the inevitability of results: just as natural processes (wind’s movement, childbirth, the alternation of day and night) occur in due course, so too the fruits of actions—especially wrongdoing—arrive unfailingly and cannot be permanently evaded.
Vaiśaṃpāyana delivers a reflective, proverbial statement using everyday certainties to underscore a moral point: consequences follow actions with the same certainty as time’s cycles, reinforcing the Mahābhārata’s emphasis on karmic and ethical accountability.