Shloka 23
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
शेषे हवस्थिते तात पुत्राणामन्तके त्वयि । न मे दुःखं भवेदेतद् यदि त्वं धर्ममाचरे:,तात! तुम मेरे सारे पुत्रोंक लिये यमराज बन गये। यदि तुम धर्मका आचरण करते और मेरा एक पुत्र भी शेष रह जाता तो मुझे इतना दुःख नहीं होता
śeṣe hāvasthite tāta putrāṇām antake tvayi | na me duḥkhaṃ bhaved etad yadi tvaṃ dharmam ācareḥ ||
Bhīmasena said: “O dear one, while you remain alive, you have become like Death itself to my sons. If you had acted in accordance with dharma, and even a single son of mine had been left surviving, then this grief would not have been so unbearable for me.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames grief in ethical terms: suffering is intensified when destruction is linked to adharma. Bhīma implies that righteous conduct (dharma) should preserve at least some remnant of family life; when one acts like ‘Death’ to others’ children, the moral rupture deepens the sorrow and outrage.
In the Stree Parva’s lamentation context after the war, Bhīma addresses an elder/other person with sharp reproach, saying that the addressee—though still alive—has become like Yama (Antaka) to Bhīma’s sons. He declares that if the person had followed dharma and left even one of Bhīma’s sons alive, Bhīma’s grief would have been less.