Shloka 108
छन््दतो मृत्युरित्येवं तस्य चास्तु वरस्तथा । धारयिष्ये ततः प्राणानुत्सगें नियते सति,“अतः उत्तरायणमें मृत्यु प्राप्त करनेकी इच्छासे मैं अपने प्राणोंको धारण करूँगा। मेरे महात्मा पिताने मुझे जो वर दिया था कि तुम्हें अपनी इच्छा होनेपर ही मृत्यु प्राप्त होगी, उनका वह वरदान सफल हो। मैं प्राणत्यागका नियत समय आनेतक अवश्य इन प्राणोंको रोक रखूँगा'
chandato mṛtyur ity evaṃ tasya cāstu varas tathā | dhārayiṣye tataḥ prāṇān utsarge niyate sati ||
Sañjaya said: “Thus resolved—‘let death come only at my chosen time’—may that boon indeed stand fulfilled. Therefore I shall hold back my life-breath until the appointed moment of relinquishing it arrives.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights self-mastery and fidelity to a vow/boon: life is sustained not by impulse but by disciplined resolve, and death is approached as a consciously accepted, ethically timed act rather than a mere accident.
In the war narrative, the speaker reports a resolve to postpone death until the predetermined moment, so that an earlier boon—granting death only by one’s own choice—remains effective and fulfilled.