Shloka 2536
कर्णपर्व — चतुर्दशोऽध्यायः
Arjuna’s Suppression of the Saṃśaptakas; Kṛṣṇa’s Strategic Admonition; Battlefield Inventory
उल्कापातावृतं युद्ध प्रजानां संक्षये नूप । नरेश्वरर उस समय बाणसमूहोंसे व्याप्त हुआ आकाश बड़ा भयंकर प्रतीत होने लगा; ठीक उस तरह जैसे प्रजाके संहारकालमें होनेवाला युद्ध उल्कापातसे व्याप्त होनेके कारण अत्यन्त भयानक दिखायी देता है
sañjaya uvāca | ulkāpātāvṛtaṃ yuddhaṃ prajānāṃ saṃkṣaye nṛpa | bāṇasaṃghair vyāptaṃ vyoma tadā ghoraṃ babhūva | yathā prajāsaṃhārakāle yuddham ulkāpātāvṛtaṃ bhayānakaṃ dṛśyate ||
Sanjaya said: O king, at that time the sky, filled with dense flights of arrows, appeared exceedingly dreadful—like a battle at the hour of a people’s destruction, when it is shrouded by falling meteors and thus looks terrifying. The scene signals not merely martial intensity but an ominous, almost cosmic warning that mass slaughter is approaching its ordained climax.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames extreme violence as a moral and cosmic warning: when war becomes indiscriminate and annihilative, nature itself seems to mirror the disorder through ominous signs (meteors), reminding rulers that adharma-driven conflict leads to collective ruin.
Sanjaya reports to Dhritarashtra that the battlefield has become terrifying: the sky is thick with volleys of arrows, and the scene is compared to an apocalyptic battle veiled by meteor-falls—an image emphasizing the scale and dread of the ongoing combat in the Karna Parva.