Shloka 3

भूमिभार-निवारणप्रसङ्गः (Bhūmibhāra-nivāraṇa-prasaṅgaḥ) — The Motif of Relieving Earth’s Burden

Devanagari script

हयमाने भृशं दीप्ते विधिवद्‌ वसुरेतसि । न सम स प्रापतद्‌ वह्लौ तक्षको भयपीडित:ः,क्योंकि अग्नि पूर्णरूपसे प्रज्वयलित थी और उसमें विधिपूर्वक आहुतियाँ दी जा रही थीं तो भी भयसे पीड़ित तक्षक नाग उस अग्निमें नहीं गिरा

Transliteration

havyamāne bhṛśaṁ dīpte vidhivad vasuretasi | na sa samāpapatad vahnau takṣako bhayapīḍitaḥ ||

Translation

قال شَوْنَكَة: «ومع أنّ نار اليَجْنَة كانت متّقدةً توهّجًا شديدًا، وكانت القرابين تُلقى فيها على وفق الشريعة، مُغذّاةً بالسمن المصفّى فتزداد إشراقًا، فإنّ تكشَكَ، وقد أضناه الخوف، لم يسقط في تلك النار.»

Word by Word

• {'havyamāne': 'when oblations are being offered (into the fire)', 'bhṛśam': 'exceedingly, intensely', 'dīpte': 'blazing, kindled, radiant', 'vidhivat': 'according to prescribed rite, properly', 'vasu-retasi': 'having ghee as its stream

• fed by clarified butter (epithet of sacrificial fire)', 'na': 'not', 'saḥ': 'he (that one)', 'samāpapatat': 'fell into, plunged into', 'vahnau': 'in the fire (locative of vahni)', 'takṣakaḥ': 'Takṣaka (the serpent-king)', 'bhaya-pīḍitaḥ': 'afflicted/tormented by fear'}

Speaker

शौनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śaunaka
• Takṣaka
• vahni (sacrificial fire)
• havis (oblations)
• ghṛta (ghee)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even when a rite is performed with full procedural power, the narrative highlights the counterforce of fear and the instinct for self-preservation; it also gestures to the larger Mahābhārata theme that outcomes arise from a complex interplay of ritual efficacy, personal agency, and unseen protections.

What is happening in the narrative?

During the serpent-sacrifice context, the sacrificial fire is intensely blazing and receiving oblations properly, yet Takṣaka—frightened—does not plunge into the fire, indicating his avoidance of the sacrificial pull at that moment.