Shloka 16
धृतराष्ट्रस्य मूर्च्छा—व्यासोपदेशः
Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Collapse and Vyāsa’s Counsel
प्रत्यक्ष तव राजेन्द्र वैरस्पास्य समुद्धव: । पुत्र ते कारणं कृत्वा कालयोगेन कारित:
pratyakṣaṃ tava rājendra vairaspāsya samudbhavaḥ | putras te kāraṇaṃ kṛtvā kālayogena kāritaḥ ||
Vyāsa said: “O king, the outbreak of this enmity has occurred before your very eyes. Taking your son as the immediate cause, it has been brought about by the conjunction of Time and destiny.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vyāsa frames the catastrophe as having a visible human trigger (the king’s son becoming the immediate cause) while also being driven by Kāla—Time’s larger, inexorable dispensation. Ethically, it warns rulers not to hide behind fate: proximate causes still involve human choices and accountability, even when events unfold within a wider destiny.
In the aftermath of the war (Strī Parva’s lamentation context), Vyāsa addresses the king and explains how the hostility and its eruption were not sudden or hidden: it unfolded openly. The son’s actions served as the practical catalyst, yet the overall unfolding is attributed to the overpowering course of Time.