Shloka 12
तथैवास्य भयाद् बद्ध्वा वसिष्ठ: सलिले पुरा । आत्मानं मज्जयन् श्रीमान् विपाश: पुनरुत्थित:,पूर्वकालमें विश्वामित्रके ही भयसे अपने शरीरको रस्सीसे बाँधकर श्रीमान् वसिष्ठजी अपने-आपको एक नदीके जलमें डुबो रहे थे; परंतु उस नदीके द्वारा पाशरहित (बन्धनमुक्त) हो पुन: ऊपर उठ आये। महात्मा वसिष्ठके उस महान् कर्मसे विख्यात हो वह पवित्र नदी उसी दिनसे “विपाशा” कहलाने लगी
tathaivāsya bhayād baddhvā vasiṣṭhaḥ salile purā | ātmānaṃ majjayan śrīmān vipāśaḥ punarutthitaḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “So too, long ago, out of fear of him, the illustrious Vasiṣṭha bound his own body with a rope and tried to sink himself in the water. Yet he rose up again—freed from the noose—through the power of that river. Because of that renowned deed of the great-souled Vasiṣṭha, the holy river became celebrated from that very day by the name ‘Vipāśā’ (‘the Noose-less’).”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even under intense fear and pressure, a person of spiritual strength and integrity is not ultimately overcome; the episode also frames how a righteous life and great deeds become memorialized in sacred geography, turning a place into a moral reminder.
Yudhiṣṭhira recounts an old incident: Vasiṣṭha, terrified (in the background of the Viśvāmitra–Vasiṣṭha hostility), ties himself with a rope and attempts to drown in a river, but the river releases him from the bond and he rises again; from this event the river becomes known as Vipāśā, ‘free from the noose.’