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,भरतश्रेष्ठ) कालने इस युद्धको निमित्तमात्र बनाया है। वह जो प्राणियोंद्वारा ही प्राणियोंका वध करता है, वही उसका ईश्वरीय रूप है
hetumātram idaṁ tasya vihitaṁ bharatarṣabha | yad dhanti bhūtair bhūtāni tad asmai rūpam aiśvaram ||
اے بھرتوں میں سَرشٹھ! اسی نے اس جنگ کو محض ایک وسیلہ مقرر کیا ہے۔ جس طریقے سے جاندار جانداروں ہی کے ہاتھوں مارے جاتے ہیں—یہی اس کا شاہانہ، الٰہی روپ ہے۔
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.