संजय उवाच
शरतल्पे महात्मानं शयानम् अमितौजसम् ॥
महावातसमूहेन समुद्रम् इव शोषितम् ॥
दिव्यैर् अस्त्रैर् महेष्वासं पातितं सव्यसाचिना ॥
जयाशां तव पुत्राणां संभग्नां शर्म वर्म च ॥
saṃjaya uvāca
śaratalpe mahātmānaṃ śayānam amitaujasam ||
mahāvātasamūhena samudram iva śoṣitam ||
divyair astrair maheṣvāsaṃ pātitaṃ savyasācinā ||
jayāśāṃ tava putrāṇāṃ saṃbhagnāṃ śarma varma ca ||
[Sanjaya describes Bhishma, lying on a bed of arrows:] the great-souled one, boundlessly mighty, stretched out on a bed of arrows like an ocean dried up by a mighty storm; the great archer, felled by Savyasachin [Arjuna] with divine weapons — he who was now the shattered hope of victory of your sons, their refuge and their armor.
ea3d9ee50fc0 · published Jul 19, 2026, 2:46:26 PM UTC
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An ocean dried up by a storm is an image of the inconceivable: how can the boundless be imagined to run dry? So too the fall of Bhishma strikes the mind with impossibility. It is telling that he was to Dhritarashtra's sons "hope, refuge, and armor" — three names of support — and all three collapsed at once: such is the price of resting one's trust on a single mortal. The verse teaches that even what seems inexhaustible is subject to decline, and that to build one's hope, protection, and stronghold on a single person is to doom oneself to utter ruin at the hour of his passing — for only the Imperishable is a refuge that never runs dry.