Shloka 23
Gaya’s Seven Aśvamedhas, Payoṣṇī Snāna, and the Śaryāti Sacrifice Locale
Lomaśa–Yudhiṣṭhira Dialogue
युधिछिर उवाच कथं विष्टम्भितस्तेन भगवान् पाकशासन: । किमर्थ भार्गवश्चलापि कोप॑ चक्रे महातपा:,युधिष्ठिरने पूछा--मुने! महातपस्वी भृगुपुत्र महर्षि च्यवनने भगवान् इन्द्रका स्तम्भन कैसे किया? उन्हें इन्द्रपर क्रोध किसलिये हुआ?
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca kathaṁ viṣṭambhitastena bhagavān pākaśāsanaḥ | kimarthaṁ bhārgavaś cyavanopi kopaṁ cakre mahātapāḥ ||
قال يودهيشثيرا: «كيف أمكنه أن يَكُفَّ باكاشاسانا (إندرا) المبارك ويحبسه؟ ولأيِّ سببٍ غضبَ البهارغَفي—تشْيَفَنا، ذلك الناسك العظيم—واستسلم للحنق؟»
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the Mahābhārata’s ethical tension between worldly power and spiritual power: even Indra can be restrained when a great ascetic’s tapas is provoked. It implicitly warns that anger (kopa) in the spiritually powerful has far-reaching consequences, and that rulers and gods alike must respect dharma and the dignity of sages.
Yudhiṣṭhira questions the sage-narrator about an earlier episode: how Indra (Pākaśāsana) was stopped or immobilized by Chyavana, and what provoked Chyavana’s anger. The question sets up the explanation of a conflict between a deity’s authority and a ṛṣi’s ascetic potency.