Shloka 18
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
हेतुमात्रमिदं तस्य विहितं भरतर्षभ । यद्धन्ति भूतैर्भूतानि तदस्मै रूपमैश्वरम्
hetumātram idaṁ tasya vihitaṁ bharatarṣabha | yad dhanti bhūtair bhūtāni tad asmai rūpam aiśvaram ||
हे भरतश्रेष्ठ! काल ने इस युद्ध को केवल निमित्तमात्र ठहराया है। वह जो प्राणियों के द्वारा ही प्राणियों का वध कराता है—वही उसका ईश्वरीय, अधिपत्य-स्वरूप है।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the war as merely an instrument in the hands of a higher power: Time (Kāla). Destruction occurs through the agency of beings themselves, revealing a divine sovereignty that operates through secondary causes rather than personal, partisan action.
Vyāsa addresses a Bharata leader and interprets the great conflict as something arranged by the cosmic order. He explains that the slaying of creatures by other creatures is not random but a manifestation of the lordly power of Time, which uses events like war as its occasion.