Shloka 21
अध्याय १९० — वामदेव-वाम्य-वृत्तान्तः
The Vāmadeva Horses Episode and the Ethics of Promise
साधुशिरोमणे! काम, क्रोध, हर्ष, भय और मोह--इन सभी विकारोंको मेरी ही रोमावली समझो
sādhuśiromaṇe! kāmaḥ, krodhaḥ, harṣaḥ, bhayaṃ ca mohaś ca—ete sarve vikārā mamaiva romāvalīṃ viddhi
O Scheiteljuwel unter den Tugendhaften! Wisse: Begehren, Zorn, Freude, Furcht und Verblendung—all diese Regungen—sind nichts anderes als die Haare meines eigenen Leibes.
देव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that powerful emotions—desire, anger, joy, fear, and delusion—are natural modifications within the cosmic/divine order, yet they are still to be recognized and regulated. Ethical life requires awareness and mastery of these impulses rather than surrender to them.
A divine figure addresses a virtuous interlocutor, praising them and offering instruction. The deity uses a vivid metaphor—calling these emotional disturbances ‘my own body-hairs’—to convey that such states are inherent in embodied existence and must be understood in relation to the divine reality.