Shloka 76
अस्त्रयुद्धे द्रौणिपार्थसंघर्षः — Karṇa’s Bhārgavāstra and the Search for Yudhiṣṭhira
Chapter 45
शल्य उवाच वरुणं को<म्भसा हन्यादिन्धनेन च पावकम् | को वानिलं निगृह्नीयात् पिबेद् वा को महार्णवम्
śalya uvāca varuṇaṃ ko 'mbhasā hanyād indhanena ca pāvakam | ko vānilaṃ nigṛhnīyāt pibed vā ko mahārṇavam ||
शल्य म्हणाला—कर्णा! पाण्याने वरुणाला कोण मारू शकेल आणि इंधनाने अग्नीला कोण विझवू शकेल? वायूला कोण आवरू शकेल, किंवा महासागर कोण पिऊ शकेल?
शल्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches humility and discernment: some forces are intrinsically beyond conquest, so prideful attempts to overpower them are futile and invite ruin—especially in the moral pressure-cooker of war.
Śalya, speaking amid the Karṇa-parvan war context, uses a chain of rhetorical questions—water vs Varuṇa, fuel vs fire, restraining wind, drinking the ocean—to emphasize impossibility and to caution against overconfidence in a contest where the opponent or circumstance is effectively ‘unassailable.’