Shloka 42
न नूनं देहभेदो5स्ति काले राजन्ननागते । यत्र सर्वे न युगपद् व्यशीर्यन्त महारथा:,राजन! निश्चय ही अन्तकाल आये बिना किसीके शरीरका नाश नहीं होता है, तभी तो उस संग्राममें क्षत-विक्षत हुए वे समस्त महारथी एक साथ ही नष्ट नहीं हो गये
na nūnaṃ dehabhedo 'sti kāle rājan anāgate | yatra sarve na yugapad vyaśīryanta mahārathāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: O King, surely the breaking of the body does not occur before its appointed time. Otherwise, in that battle, all those great chariot-warriors—though wounded and mangled—would have perished at once. The course of life and death, even amid slaughter, moves according to its destined hour, not merely according to the violence of the moment.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Death (the destruction of the body) is portrayed as occurring only when its destined time (kāla) arrives; even in extreme violence, outcomes are not purely random but unfold according to an appointed order.
Sañjaya explains to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that, despite many warriors being grievously wounded in the battle, they did not all die at once—implying that their end comes only when the final time arrives.