Shloka 13
आस्तीक बोले--कुरुकुलश्रेष्ठ! राजन्! जिसके यज्ञमें तपस्याकी निधि पुरातन ऋषि महर्षि द्वैपायन व्यास विराजमान हों, उसकी तो दोनों लोकोंमें विजय है ।। श्रुतं विचित्रमाख्यानं त्वया पाण्डवनन्दन । सर्पाश्न भस्मसान्नीता गताश्न पदवीं पितु:,पाण्डवनन्दन! तुमने यह विचित्र उपाख्यान सुना। तुम्हारे शत्रु सर्पगण भस्म होकर तुम्हारे पिताकी ही पदवीको पहुँच गये
Āstīka uvāca—kurukulaśreṣṭha! rājan! yasya yajñe tapasyā-nidhiḥ purātana ṛṣiḥ maharṣiḥ dvaipāyana-vyāsaḥ virājamānaḥ, tasya tu ubhayalokeṣu jayaḥ. śrutaṃ vicitram ākhyānaṃ tvayā pāṇḍavanandana. sarpāś ca bhasmasānnītā gatāś ca padavīṃ pituḥ.
Āstīka said: “O best of the Kuru line, O King! In whose sacrifice the ancient seer—Mahārṣi Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, a treasury of austerity—sits in honored presence, that man attains victory in both worlds. O delight of the Pāṇḍavas, you have heard this wondrous account: the serpents who were your foes have been reduced to ashes, and they have gone to the very state attained by your father.”
आस्तीक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links righteous ritual authority and spiritual merit to lasting success: when a sacrifice is guided by a supremely austere and authoritative sage like Vyāsa, it is said to yield ‘victory in both worlds’—worldly legitimacy and otherworldly merit—implying that power should be restrained and sanctified by dharma and true spiritual counsel.
Āstīka addresses the Kuru king (contextually Janamejaya) and praises the presence of Vyāsa at the sacrifice. He then summarizes the heard episode: the serpents—treated as enemies in the serpent-sacrifice context—are described as having been burned to ashes and as having reached the same ‘state’ as the king’s father, pointing to the continuing karmic and ancestral frame behind the conflict with the serpents.