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 ||
ارجن نے کہا—اے مہامنی! ایک ہی لمحے میں میرے تیر ہر سمت تباہ ہو گئے۔ طرح طرح کے ہتھیاروں کا میرا علم بھی مٹ گیا؛ میرے سب تیر چاروں طرف جا کر پل بھر میں فنا ہو گئے۔
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Even the greatest human prowess—martial skill, weapons, and hard-won knowledge—can be withdrawn in a moment when time (kāla) and destiny turn.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.