Shloka 243
हैडिम्बश्नाप्युपायेन शक््त्या कर्णेन घातित: । मायावी अलायुध घटोत्कचके हाथसे मारा गया है और घटोत्कचको भी मैंने ही युक्ति लगाकर कर्णकी चलायी हुई शक्तिसे मरवा दिया है
haiḍimbaś cāpy upāyena śaktyā karṇena ghātitaḥ | māyāvī alāyudhaś ca ghaṭotkacaḥ mayāiva yuktim āsthāya karṇa-prayuktayā śaktyā māritaḥ ||
Śrī Vāyudeva said: “Haidimba too was slain by Karṇa with his Śakti through a stratagem. And the sorcerous Alāyudha—Ghaṭotkaca—was also brought to death by me, by employing a device so that he would be killed by the Śakti launched by Karṇa.” In this speech, Vāyu frames the deaths not as mere battlefield outcomes but as outcomes shaped by deliberate counsel and counter-counsel—where strategy and the management of overwhelming weapons become decisive, raising the ethical tension between straightforward valor and necessary war-time expedients.
श्रीवायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in war, outcomes often hinge on upāya (strategic expedients) and the controlled deployment of extraordinary weapons. It implicitly raises a dharmic tension: valor alone is not the sole determinant—counsel, timing, and the redirection of destructive power can decide events, even when such means feel morally ambiguous.
Vāyudeva claims responsibility for arranging, through strategy, that Karṇa’s Śakti would be used to kill key rākṣasa opponents—naming Haidimba and the māyāvī Alāyudha/Ghaṭotkaca—thereby explaining these deaths as orchestrated rather than accidental, and emphasizing the decisive role of counsel and divine influence in the battle’s turning points.