Shloka 18
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
हेतुमात्रमिदं तस्य विहितं भरतर्षभ । यद्धन्ति भूतैर्भूतानि तदस्मै रूपमैश्वरम्
hetumātram idaṁ tasya vihitaṁ bharatarṣabha | yad dhanti bhūtair bhūtāni tad asmai rūpam aiśvaram ||
ਹੇ ਭਰਤ-ਸ਼੍ਰੇਸ਼ਠ! ਕਾਲ ਨੇ ਇਸ ਯੁੱਧ ਨੂੰ ਕੇਵਲ ਨਿਮਿੱਤ-ਮਾਤਰ ਬਣਾਇਆ ਹੈ। ਜਿਸ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਜੀਵ ਜੀਵਾਂ ਦੇ ਹੱਥੋਂ ਹੀ ਮਾਰੇ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ—ਉਹੀ ਉਸ ਦਾ ਈਸ਼ਵਰੀ, ਅਧਿਪਤਿ-ਰੂਪ ਹੈ।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the war as merely an instrument in the hands of a higher power: Time (Kāla). Destruction occurs through the agency of beings themselves, revealing a divine sovereignty that operates through secondary causes rather than personal, partisan action.
Vyāsa addresses a Bharata leader and interprets the great conflict as something arranged by the cosmic order. He explains that the slaying of creatures by other creatures is not random but a manifestation of the lordly power of Time, which uses events like war as its occasion.