Shloka 26
धृतराष्ट्रस्य उपालम्भः तथा पाण्डव-समाश्वासनम् | Dhṛtarāṣṭra Reproved and the Pāṇḍavas Consoled
यथान्तकमनुप्राप्य जीवन वक्रिन्न मुच्यते । एवं बाद्वन्तरं प्राप्प तव जीवेन्न कश्षन,“जैसे यमराजके पास पहुँचकर कोई भी जीवित नहीं छूट सकता, उसी प्रकार आपकी भुजाओंके बीचमें पड़ जानेपर किसीके प्राण नहीं बच सकते
yathāntakam anuprāpya jīvan vā kṛścin na mucyate | evaṃ bāhvantaraṃ prāpya tava jīven na kaścana ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Just as no living being, once brought into the presence of Antaka (Death), can escape alive, so too—once caught between your arms—no one’s life can be spared.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the inevitability of death and the inescapability of overwhelming force: as none can evade Death once seized, so none can survive once trapped in the opponent’s crushing grip. Ethically, it reflects the grim realism of war—where strength and fate can render individual agency powerless.
In the Strī Parva’s lament-filled aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vaiśampāyana narrates a statement praising (or warning about) a warrior’s lethal might: anyone who falls within that warrior’s arms—i.e., is caught in close combat—cannot escape with life.