Shloka 16
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
न त्वं हन्ता न भीमो<यं नार्जुनो न यमावपि । काल: पर्यायधर्मेण प्राणानादत्त देहिनाम्
na tvaṁ hantā na bhīmo ’yaṁ nārjuno na yamāv api | kālaḥ paryāyadharmeṇa prāṇān ādatta dehinām ||
व्यास बोले— न तुम हन्ता हो, न यह भीम, न अर्जुन, और न ही माद्री के वे दोनों पुत्र। पर्याय-धर्म से चलने वाला काल ही देहधारियों के प्राण क्रमशः हर लेता है।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse shifts ultimate causality from individual warriors to Kāla (Time): lives end according to an impersonal cosmic order. Ethically, it counsels restraint in self-blame and hatred, urging a dharmic understanding that personal agency operates within a larger law of time and destiny.
Vyāsa addresses a listener burdened by the idea of having ‘killed’ others (in the war context). He clarifies that neither the addressed person nor Bhīma, Arjuna, or the twins are the ultimate slayers; rather, Time, arriving in due sequence, takes the life-breath of embodied beings.