Shloka 7
Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Bereavement and the Averted Assault on Bhīma (Āyasī Pratimā Episode)
ध्रुवं सम्प्राप्प लोकांस्ते निर्मलान् शस्त्रनिर्जितान् । भास्वरं देहमास्थाय विहरन्त्यमरा इव,“निश्चय ही वे शस्त्रोंद्वारा जीते हुए निर्मल लोकोंमें पहुँचकर तेजस्वी शरीर धारण करके वहाँ देवताओंके समान विहार करते होंगे
dhruvaṃ samprāpp(a) lokāṃs te nirmalān śastra-nirjitān | bhāsvaraṃ deham āsthāya viharanti amarā iva ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “Surely they have attained those stainless worlds won by the sword. Assuming radiant bodies, they sport there like the immortals.” The line frames a warrior’s death in battle as leading to exalted posthumous realms, offering consolation amid the grief and moral aftermath of war.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a traditional epic ethic: those who fall through martial valor are believed to attain pure, exalted realms and a radiant state of existence. In the Stree Parva’s atmosphere of mourning, this functions as moral reassurance and consolation, even as the larger narrative continues to question the human cost of war.
Vaiśaṃpāyana, narrating the aftermath of the great war, describes the fate of the slain: they are envisioned as having reached stainless worlds earned through combat, dwelling there in luminous bodies like the gods—an attempt to frame the deaths within a meaningful cosmic order amid widespread lamentation.