Shloka 6
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Remorse and Vyāsa’s Teaching on Impermanence (Śoka-nivāraṇa)
जीर्णसिंहमिव प्रांशुं नरसिंहं पितामहम् | कीर्यमाणं शरैर्दृष्टवा भृशं मे व्यथितं मन:
jīrṇa-siṁham iva prāṁśuṁ nara-siṁhaṁ pitāmaham | kīryamāṇaṁ śarair dṛṣṭvā bhṛśaṁ me vyathitaṁ manaḥ ||
坚战（Yudhiṣṭhira）说道：“当我看见那位祖父——高峻如老狮，亦为人中之狮——被箭矢层层覆盖时，我的心深受痛楚。那位可敬的长者在战场暴烈之中震颤、被压倒的景象，使我满怀哀伤；因为它昭示：即便是最崇高的持法者，也会在战争不可逆转的洪流里被迫低落。”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the ethical cost of war: even when fought under the banner of dharma, violence produces profound sorrow, especially when revered elders and exemplars of duty suffer. Yudhiṣṭhira’s pain signals the Mahābhārata’s insistence that righteous ends do not erase the human and moral burden of means.
Yudhiṣṭhira describes witnessing the grandsire Bhīṣma—towering and heroic—being overwhelmed by a shower of arrows on the battlefield. The spectacle of the venerable elder brought to a trembling, afflicted state fills him with intense anguish.