अपापोऽसि यदा पुत्र निहतः पापकर्मणा।
तेन सत्येन गच्छाशु ये लोकाः शस्त्रयोधिनाम्॥
apāpo ’si yathā putra nihataḥ pāpa-karmaṇā
tena satyena gacchāśu ye lokāḥ śastra-yodhinām
apāpaḥ = sinless; asi = you are [now]; yathā = because; putra = dear son; nihataḥ = you have been killed; pāpa-karmaṇā = by a person of sinful activity; tena = therefore; satyena = on the strength of my truthfulness; gaccha = go; āśu = quickly; ye lokāḥ = to those worlds; śastra-yodhinām = attained by weaponed warriors.
Dear son, you are [now] sinless because you have been killed by a person of sinful activity. Therefore quickly go to those worlds attained by weaponed warriors on the strength of my truthfulness.
1 This verse appears as an alternate text after 5.33.52 in Bhāndarkar oriental research institute edition of Māhbhāratā.
The king had killed the sage’s son with his own hands. The sage considered that this was an atonement to his sons’ previous sins and spoke this verse.
One might object, “He should have said that this [young] ascetic should attain Brahmaloka. Instead he has said that simply because he was killed by means of a weapon, he would attain the world of weaponed warriors. How is this appropriate?”
The answer is as follows:
dvāv imau puruṣau loke surya-maṇḍala-bhedinau
parivrāḍ yoga-yuktaś ca raṇe cābhimukho hataḥ
“Two persons in the world penetrate the sun’s orb: the sannyasi absorbed in spiritual practice and he who dies on the battlefield without retreating.”1
Therefore, we understand that weaponed warriors do attain exalted destinations. Therefore, there is no fault [in the statement of the blind sage].