Shloka 503
Śiva’s Battlefield Manifestation and Vyāsa’s Śatarudrīya Exposition (शिवप्रादुर्भावः शतरुद्रीयव्याख्यानम्)
यथा वैतरणी राजन् यमराजपुरं प्रति । राजन! दोनों सेनाओंके बीचमें बहनेवाली वह नदी मनुष्यों, घोड़ों और हाथियोंको भी बहाये लिये जाती थी, मानो वैतरणी नदी यमराजपुरीकी ओर जा रही हो
sañjaya uvāca |
yathā vaitaraṇī rājan yamarājapuraṃ prati |
Sañjaya said: “O King, just as the river Vaitaraṇī flows toward the city of Yama, so too did that river running between the two armies sweep away men, horses, and elephants—turning the battlefield into a passage toward death itself.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses the Vaitaraṇī–Yama imagery to underscore the moral and existential cost of war: violence turns the battlefield into a threshold of death, reminding listeners that actions (karma) lead inexorably to their consequences.
Sañjaya describes to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a horrific scene in which a river or torrent between the opposing armies is sweeping away combatants and animals; he likens it to the mythic Vaitaraṇī flowing toward Yama’s abode, intensifying the sense of mass death.