Shloka 19
मौसलपर्व — अध्याय ८
Arjuna’s evacuation of Dvārakā, Vasudeva’s rites, and the caravan’s crisis
शराशक्ष क्षयमापतन्ना: क्षणेनैव समन्तत: । महामुने! मेरा नाना प्रकारके अस्त्रोंका ज्ञान विलुप्त हो गया। मेरे सभी बाण सब ओर जाकर क्षणभरमें नष्ट हो गये ।। १८ $ ।। पुरुषश्चाप्रमेयात्मा शड्खचक्रगदाधर:
śarāś ca kṣayam āpatan nāḥ kṣaṇenaiva samantataḥ | mahāmune! me nānā-prakārake astrāṇāṁ jñānaṁ viluptaṁ gataṁ | mama sarve bāṇāḥ sarvato gatvā kṣaṇa-bhareṇa naṣṭāḥ ||
अर्जुन उवाच—महामुने! मम शराः क्षणेनैव समन्ततः क्षयमापन्नाः। नानाविधास्त्रज्ञानं च मे विलुप्तं जातम्; सर्वे मम बाणा दिशो विदिशश्च गत्वा क्षणमात्रेण नष्टाः॥
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even the greatest human prowess—martial skill, weapons, and hard-won knowledge—can be withdrawn in a moment when time (kāla) and destiny turn. The verse underscores impermanence and the ethical humility that dharma requires: one should not cling to power as if it were permanently one’s own.
Arjuna reports to a sage that his arrows are failing and being destroyed instantly, and that his mastery of diverse weapons has disappeared. This signals a decisive shift in the epic’s closing movement: the heroes’ former capacities no longer operate as before, indicating the waning of their era and the approach of inevitable transition.