Shloka 67
Nāgendra–Brāhmaṇa Saṃvāda: Praśna-vidhi and Dharmic Approach on the Gomatī Riverbank
अनेन नून॑ वेदानां कृतमाहरणं रसात् । कस्यैष को नु खल्वेष कि च स्वपिति भोगवान्
Vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca: anena nūna vedānāṃ kṛtam āharaṇaṃ rasāt | kasya eṣa ko nu khalv eṣa kiṃ ca svapiti bhogavān | rajo-guṇa-tamo-guṇābhyām āviṣṭau tau ubhau asurau parasparaṃ kathayām āsa-tuḥ—“ya eṣa śveta-varṇaḥ puruṣaḥ nidrāyāṃ nimagnaḥ svapiti, niścayaṃ eṣa eva rasātalaṃ vedānām apaharaṇaṃ kṛtavān | eṣa kasya putraḥ? ko ’yam? kutaḥ? kim-arthaṃ ca atra sarpa-śarīra-śayyāyāṃ svapiti?”
Vaiśaṃpāyana sprach: Von den Eigenschaften rajas und tamas überwältigt, sagten die beiden Asuras zueinander: „Gewiss ist dieser weißhäutige Mann, im Schlaf versunken, eben derjenige, der die Veden aus Rasātala geraubt hat. Wessen Sohn ist er—wer ist er, und warum liegt er hier schlafend auf einer Lagerstatt, die der Leib einer Schlange ist?“
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how rajas and tamas cloud discernment: driven by passion and darkness, the Asuras hastily attribute the theft of sacred knowledge (the Vedas) to a sleeping figure. Ethically, it warns against judgment under the sway of the guṇas and frames the Vedas as a cosmic trust whose loss disrupts order.
Two Asuras, overwhelmed by rajas and tamas, see a white-complexioned person asleep on a serpent-bodied couch and conclude he must be the one who carried the Vedas down to Rasātala. They question his identity—whose son he is, who he is, and why he sleeps there.