Shloka 94
भीष्मपर्व — अध्याय ११०: पार्थभीमयोः प्रहारः तथा भीष्माभिमुखं संग्रामविस्तारः
Arjuna and Bhima’s pressure; escalation toward Bhishma
नाहं तातस्तव पितुस्तातो5स्मि तव भारत । इति मामब्रवीद् बालये य: स वध्य: कथं मया,“गदाग्रज! कहते हैं, मैं बचपनमें अपने पिता महात्मा पाण्डुके भी पितृतुल्य भीष्मजीकी गोदमें चढ़कर जब उन्हें तात कहकर पुकारता था, उस समय उस बाल्यावस्थामें ही वे मुझसे इस प्रकार कहते थे--“भरतनन्दन! मैं तुम्हारा तात नहीं, तुम्हारे पिताका तात हूँ।' वे ही वृद्ध पितामह मेरे द्वारा मारनेयोग्य कैसे हो सकते हैं?
nāhaṃ tātas tava pituḥ tāto 'smi tava bhārata | iti mām abravīd bālye yaḥ sa vadhyaḥ kathaṃ mayā ||
Sanjaya said: “O Bharata, I am not your ‘father’; I am the father of your father.” Thus he spoke to me when I was still a child. How, then, could that very aged grandsire—who corrected me with such paternal care—ever be fit to be slain by me? The memory exposes the moral conflict of fighting one’s own elders in a righteous war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even in a dharma-yuddha, the duty to fight collides with deep obligations of reverence and gratitude toward elders; memory of care and kinship intensifies the ethical burden of violence.
The speaker recalls childhood intimacy with Bhishma: when addressed as ‘father,’ Bhishma corrected him—‘I am your father’s father.’ This recollection is used to argue that Bhishma, the venerable grandsire, feels impossible to treat as an enemy to be slain.