Shloka 17
Jayadratha-rakṣā: Conch Signals and Encirclement of Arjuna
Chapter 79
हा वीर दृष्टो नष्टश्न धनं स्वप्न इवासि मे । अहो हानित्यं मानुष्यं जलबुदबुदचउ्चलम्,“हा वीर! तुम सपनेमें मिले हुए धनकी भाँति मुझे दिखायी दिये और नष्ट हो गये। अहो! यह मनुष्यजीवन पानीके बुलबुलेके समान चंचल एवं अनित्य है
hā vīra dṛṣṭo naṣṭaś ca dhanaṃ svapna ivāsi me | aho hānityaṃ mānuṣyaṃ jalabudbuda-cañcalam ||
Sañjaya said: 'Alas, O hero! You appeared to me and then vanished—like wealth found in a dream. Ah, how fleeting and impermanent is human life, wavering like a bubble upon the water.'
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores anitya (impermanence): even the mightiest warrior’s presence and the security of life resemble dream-wealth—momentarily perceived, then gone. In the ethical atmosphere of the war, it functions as a reminder that pride, possession, and bodily life are unstable, urging sobriety, detachment, and dharmic discernment amid violence and loss.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, breaks into a lament for a fallen or vanished hero. He compares the hero’s brief appearance and sudden disappearance to wealth obtained in a dream, and generalizes the moment into a reflection on the fragility of human life, likening it to a trembling bubble on water.