Shloka 5
धनंजयस्य आश्वासनम्
Dhanaṃjaya’s Reassurance and the Opening Engagement
अस्त्राणां च बल॑ तेषां मानुषेषु प्रयुझजताम् । तच्च भीम॑ महद् युद्ध कृपार्जुनसमागमे । द्रष्टम भ्यागता देवा: स्वविमानै: पृथक् पृथक्,कृपाचार्य और अर्जुनके संग्राममें देवताओंके उन अस्त्रोंकी शक्तिका मनुष्योंपर प्रयोग करनेवाले शूरवीरोंके उस महाभयंकर युद्धको अपनी आँखों देखनेके लिये देवतालोग पृथक्-पृथक् अपने विमानोंपर बैठकर आये थे
Vaiśampāyana uvāca | astrāṇāṃ ca balaṃ teṣāṃ mānuṣeṣu prayuñjatām | tac ca bhīmaṃ mahad yuddhaṃ kṛpārjuna-samāgame | draṣṭum abhyāgatā devāḥ svavimānaiḥ pṛthak pṛthak ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “And to witness the power of those celestial weapons when employed among men, the gods arrived—each separately in his own aerial car—to see that dreadful, great battle that arose in the encounter between Kṛpa and Arjuna.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the extraordinary moral and cosmic weight of deploying divine weapons in human conflict: such acts are not merely personal feats but events of universal consequence, drawing even the gods as witnesses. It implicitly cautions that power (bala) must be handled with responsibility, since its use reverberates beyond the battlefield.
During the Virāṭa Parva battle sequence, Kṛpa and Arjuna come into direct confrontation. Their clash becomes so formidable—marked by the use and display of powerful astras—that the gods themselves arrive in separate vimānas to watch the great and terrifying combat.