Shloka 64
अर्जुनस्य अन्त्येष्टि, द्वारकाप्लावनम्, कलिप्रवेशः, कालोपदेशः
त्वयैकेन हता भीष्मद्रोणकर्णादयो नृपाः तेषाम् अर्जुन कालोत्थः किं न्यूनाभिभवो न सः
tvayaikena hatā bhīṣmadroṇakarṇādayo nṛpāḥ teṣām arjuna kālotthaḥ kiṃ nyūnābhibhavo na saḥ
By you alone were the kings—Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa, and the rest—brought down. So then, Arjuna, was not their defeat a conquest born of Time itself, lacking nothing and leaving nothing undone?
Sage Parāśara (narrating within the Vishnu Purana’s royal-history discourse to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Reframing Arjuna’s victories as instruments of kāla to relieve guilt and grief.
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Even great martial outcomes are ‘kālottha’—arising from Time—so the agent should see himself as an instrument and relinquish possessive doership.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Do one’s duty with excellence while reducing egoic ownership of results; interpret success and failure through a wider moral-cosmic lens.
Vishishtadvaita: Agency is real yet subordinated: the jīva acts as the Lord’s śeṣa (dependent), with kāla as a divine instrument—supporting qualified non-dualism’s dependence doctrine.
Dharma Exemplar: vira (valor)
Key Kings: Arjuna, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa
FAQs
The verse presents the fall of even the greatest warriors as ultimately ‘kālottha’—arising from Time—highlighting destiny and cosmic order as the deeper cause behind historical victory and defeat.
Parāśara credits Arjuna’s agency (“by you alone”), yet immediately interprets the outcome as Time-born, implying that personal effort operates within a larger, governing principle of fate and moral order.
In the Vishnu Purana, Kāla and the ordering of events are ultimately grounded in the Supreme Reality; the verse’s emphasis on Time as decisive aligns with Vishnu’s overarching sovereignty that upholds and directs the world-process.