Shloka 57
Duryodhana Seized by Citraseṇa; Kaurava Petition to Yudhiṣṭhira (दुर्योधनापहारः / चित्रसेनगन्धर्वग्रहणम्)
यावत् सप्ततिवर्षाणि भवन्त्येते ग्रहा नृणाम् । अतः: पर देहिनां तु ग्रहतुल्यो भवेज्ज्वर:,जबतक सत्तर वर्षकी अवस्था पूरी होती है, तबतक ये ग्रह मनुष्योंको सताते हैं। उसके बाद तो सभी देहधारियोंको ज्वर आदि रोग ही ग्रहोंके समान सताने लगते हैं
yāvat saptativarṣāṇi bhavanty ete grahā nṛṇām | ataḥ para dehināṁ tu grahatulyo bhavej jvaraḥ ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “So long as a man’s life has not yet reached seventy years, these ‘grahas’ (seizing afflictions) are said to trouble human beings. But after that point, for embodied creatures, fever and similar illnesses themselves become like grahas—seizing and tormenting the body.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames suffering across the lifespan: earlier, people fear external ‘seizing’ afflictions (grahas), but in old age ordinary diseases—especially fever—function as the real ‘seizers.’ It encourages a sober, realistic view of aging and bodily vulnerability.
Mārkaṇḍeya is instructing his listeners by describing how afflictions are understood to operate over time: up to seventy years grahas are said to trouble humans, and beyond that, illness itself becomes the graha-like force that grips embodied life.