Shloka 23
“विप्रवर! तुम पापपूर्ण आग्रह छोड़कर फिर अपनी बुद्धिसे विचार करो। सुदुर्मते! तुमने ऐसा पाप कर डाला है, जिससे यह यज्ञ ही निष्फल हो गया' ।। एवमुक्त्वा महाक्रोध: प्राह शम्भुं पुनर्वच: । प्रज्ञया रहितो दुःखी नित्यभीतो वनेचर:,“ऐसा कहकर महाक्रोधी वरिष्ठने भगवान् शंकरकी ओर देखते हुए फिर कहा--“तुम म्यारह हजार आठ सौ वर्षोतक जल और वायुसे रहित तथा अन्य पशुओंसे परित्यक्त केवल रुरु तथा सिंहोंसे सेवित जो यज्ञोंके लिये उचित नहीं है--ऐसे वृक्षोंसे भरे हुए विशालवनमें बुद्धिशून्य, दुखी, सर्ववा भयभीत, वनचारी और महान् कष्टमें मग्न क्रूर स्वभाववाले पशु होकर रहोगे'
vaiśampāyana uvāca | vipravara! tvaṁ pāpapūrṇam āgrahaṁ tyaktvā punaḥ svabuddhyā vicāraya | sudurmate! tvayā tādṛśaṁ pāpaṁ kṛtaṁ yena ayaṁ yajña eva niṣphalo jātaḥ || evam uktvā mahākrodhaḥ prāha śambhuṁ punar vacaḥ | prajñayā rahito duḥkhī nityabhīto vane-caraḥ | “tvam ekādaśa-sahasra-aṣṭa-śata-varṣāṇi jala-vāyu-rahitaḥ, anyapaśubhiḥ parityaktaḥ, kevalaṁ ruru-siṁhaiḥ sevitaḥ, yajñārha-na bhūta-vṛkṣa-bahule vipule vane buddhihīnaḥ duḥkhī sarvadā bhayabhītaḥ vane-caraḥ mahā-kleśa-magnaḥ krūra-svabhāvaḥ paśur bhaviṣyasi” ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O best of Brahmins, abandon this sinful obstinacy and reflect again with your own understanding. O misguided one, you have committed such a sin that this very sacrifice has become fruitless.” Having spoken thus in great wrath, the elder again addressed Śambhu (Śiva), looking toward him: “Bereft of discernment, miserable, and ever afraid, you shall live as a forest-dweller. For eleven thousand eight hundred years you will remain without water and air, abandoned by other creatures, attended only by rurus and lions, dwelling in a vast forest thick with trees unfit for sacrificial use—mindless, sorrowful, constantly terrified, sunk in great hardship, and of cruel nature, as a beast.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Ritual action (yajña) is not merely technical; it depends on ethical restraint and right intention. Sinful obstinacy and wrongful conduct can nullify religious merit, and moral transgression brings proportionate consequences.
The speaker reports an elder, enraged, rebuking someone for sinful insistence that has rendered a sacrifice fruitless, and then pronouncing a long-term punitive fate: to live in a harsh forest condition, deprived and fearful, like a beast, with only wild animals as companions.