Shloka 42
सहसतनेत्राशनितुल्यवीर्य कालानल व्यात्तमिवातिघोरम् । पिनाकनारायणचक्रसंनिभं भयड़्करं प्राणभृतां विनाशनम्
sahasratanetrāśanitulyavīrya kālānalavyāttamivātighoram | pinākanārāyaṇacakrasaṃnibhaṃ bhayaṅkaraṃ prāṇabhṛtāṃ vināśanam ||
サञ्जयは語った。「それは恐るべきものだった。力は千眼のインドラの金剛雷に等しく、劫末に時の火が大口を開いて燃え盛るかのように凄烈である。シヴァのピナーカ、ナーラーヤナの円盤に似て、あらゆる生きとし生けるものに恐怖を与える――生命を滅ぼすために備わった力であった。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames battlefield power through cosmic and divine metaphors—Indra’s thunderbolt, Time’s consuming fire, Śiva’s bow, and Viṣṇu’s discus—suggesting that in war human violence can resemble impersonal, world-ending forces. Ethically, it underscores the terror and moral weight of destruction: when weapons become ‘vināśana’ for living beings, the listener is pushed to reflect on restraint, responsibility, and the tragic cost that adharma-driven conflict unleashes.
Sañjaya is reporting to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, describing a fearsome weapon/force seen on the battlefield. He emphasizes its overwhelming, almost apocalyptic intensity by likening it to the greatest divine weapons and to the end-of-age fire, conveying how it inspires dread and threatens the lives of all combatants.