Shloka 86
भीष्मस्य भीमसेन-निरोधः
Bhīṣma checks Bhīmasena; matched engagements intensify
समुद्रस्पेव महतो भुजाभ्यां प्रतरन् नर: । जैसे अपनी भुजाओंसे तैरनेवाला मनुष्य महासागरका पार नहीं पा सकता, उसी प्रकार मैं इस दुःखका अन्त किसी प्रकार नहीं देखता हूँ
samudraspeva mahato bhujābhyāṃ prataraṃn naraḥ | yathā svabāhubhyāṃ plavamāno manuṣyo mahāsāgarasya pāraṃ na prāpnoti, tathāham asya duḥkhasyāntaṃ kathaṃcid api na paśyāmi ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “Just as a man, trying to swim with only his own arms, cannot reach the far shore of the vast ocean, so too I can see no end at all to this sorrow. Overwhelmed by the consequences of the war and his own attachments, he confesses a moral helplessness: suffering has become an ocean that cannot be crossed by mere personal effort.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
Sorrow can become boundless when fueled by attachment and the consequences of one’s choices; mere personal strength is insufficient to ‘cross’ it. The verse implies the need for right counsel, self-restraint, and dharmic responsibility rather than helpless lamentation.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, hearing of the catastrophic events of the Kurukṣetra war, expresses that his grief feels like a vast ocean with no visible end, using the image of a man unable to swim across a great sea with only his arms.