Shloka 54
Āstīka-stuti at Janamejaya’s Sacrifice (आस्तीकस्तुतिः / यज्ञप्रशंसा)
उत्तड़कस्य प्रियं कर्तुमात्मनश्न महत् प्रियम् । भवतां चैव सर्वेषां गच्छाम्यपचितिं पितु:,इसलिये मैं महर्षि उत्तंकका, अपना तथा आप सब लोगोंका अत्यन्त प्रिय करनेके लिये पिताके वैरका अवश्य बदला लूँगा
Janamejaya uvāca | Uttaṅkasya priyaṃ kartum ātmanaś ca mahāt priyam | bhavatāṃ caiva sarveṣāṃ gacchāmy apacitiṃ pituḥ |
Janamejaya said: “To do what is dear to Uttanka, to secure what is of the highest good for myself, and to please all of you as well, I shall go and discharge my duty to my father—by exacting vengeance for his enmity.”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the tension between dharma as filial obligation (apaciti toward one’s father) and the ethical danger of vengeance. Janamejaya frames revenge as duty and as a means to please a sage and his assembly, showing how personal grief and social pressure can be moralized as righteousness.
Janamejaya declares his resolve to act in a way that pleases the sage Uttanka and the gathered elders, and to fulfill what he sees as his duty to his father by taking revenge for the hostility that led to his father’s death—setting the stage for the snake-sacrifice (sarpa-satra).