Shloka 436
भाग्यहीनस्य कालेन यथा मे नीयसे बलात् । हा पुत्र! मैं बड़ा भाग्यहीन हूँ। निरन्तर तुम्हें देखते रहनेपर भी मुझे तृप्ति नहीं होती थी, तो भी काल आज बलपूर्वक तुम्हें मुझसे छीनकर लिये जा रहा है
bhāgyahīnasya kālena yathā me nīyase balāt | hā putra! ahaṃ baḍā bhāgyahīna hūṃ | nirantara tvāṃ dṛṣṭvāpi mama tṛptir na bhavati sma, tathāpi kālo ’dya balapūrvakaṃ tvāṃ mattaḥ chitvā nīyate |
Sañjaya said: “Alas, my son! How fate and Time drag you away from me by force, as though I were utterly bereft of fortune. Even when I could look upon you without pause, my heart was never satisfied; and yet today Time, with irresistible power, tears you from me and carries you off.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the Mahābhārata’s recurring ethic of impermanence: even deep love and constant presence cannot secure what Time (kāla) claims. It cautions against clinging and highlights the inevitability of loss amid war and mortality.
Sañjaya, overwhelmed by sorrow, addresses his son and laments that although he could never feel fully satisfied even by continually seeing him, Time/Death now forcibly separates them—an expression of personal grief set against the larger devastation of the Kurukṣetra war.