Shloka 15
Sātyaki’s Call for Intervention and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Vow-Bound Restraint (सात्यकिवाक्यं—धर्मराजस्य धैर्यनिश्चयः)
यथा प्रविश्यान्तरमन्तकस्य काले मनुष्यो न विनिष्क्रमेत | तथा प्रविश्यान्तरमस्य संख्ये को नाम जीवन पुनरात्रजेत,जैसे अन्तकाल आनेपर यमराजकी भुजाओंमें पड़ा हुआ मनुष्य कदापि वहाँसे निकल नहीं सकता, उसी प्रकार रणक्षेत्रमें वीरवर साम्बके वशमें आया हुआ कौन ऐसा योद्धा होगा, जो पुनः जीवित लौट सके
yathā praviśyāntaram antakasya kāle manuṣyo na viniṣkramet | tathā praviśyāntaram asya saṅkhye ko nāma jīvan punar ātrajet ||
Balarāma said: “Just as, when the final hour arrives, a man who has fallen into the very embrace of Antaka (Death) can never escape from there, so too—having entered into this hero’s grasp on the battlefield—what warrior could possibly return alive again?”
बलदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the inevitability of death once its decisive moment arrives, using that certainty as a moral-psychological warning: entering the grip of a superior warrior in battle can be as irreversible as falling into Death’s embrace.
Balarāma speaks in a martial context, intensifying the stakes of combat by comparing a warrior’s capture or overpowering on the battlefield to being seized by Antaka (Death), implying that escape or survival is virtually impossible.