Shloka 18
Jayadrathasya śoka-bhaya-vilāpaḥ — Droṇena āśvāsanaṃ ca
Jayadratha’s lament and Droṇa’s reassurance
अत्र मे संशय: प्राप्त: कुतः संज्ञा मृता इति । कस्य मृत्यु: कुतो मृत्यु: केन मृत्युरिमा: प्रजा:
atra me saṁśayaḥ prāptaḥ kutaḥ saṁjñā mṛtā iti | kasya mṛtyuḥ kuto mṛtyuḥ kena mṛtyur imāḥ prajāḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Here a doubt has arisen in me: how is it that one is said to be ‘dead’? Whose is this ‘death’? From where does death come? And by what agency are these beings brought to death?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames death not merely as an event but as a philosophical problem: what qualifies as ‘dead,’ what is the nature and ownership of death, and what causal agency brings it about—inviting reflection on karma, impermanence, and moral responsibility amid violence.
In the midst of the Drona Parva’s war setting, Yudhiṣṭhira voices a profound doubt about the meaning and cause of death, turning from battlefield facts to inquiry into the metaphysical and ethical dimensions of killing and dying.