Shloka 41
बक-गौतमाख्यानम् / The Baka–Gautama Account
On Gratitude and Friendship Ethics
उसके उत्पन्न होते ही धरती डोलने लगी, समुद्र क्षुब्ध हो उठा और उसमें उत्ताल तरंगोंके साथ भँवरें उठने लगीं ।।
utpanne tasyaiva pṛthivī cacāla, samudraś ca kṣubdhavān abhavat, tasminn uccaiḥ taraṅgaiḥ saha bhūyaḥ bhūyaś ca āvartāḥ samutpetuḥ | petur ulkā mahotpātāḥ, śākhāś ca mumucuḥ drumāḥ | apraśāntā diśaḥ sarvāḥ, pavanaś cāśivo vavau ||
Bhishma said: “The very moment he was born, the earth began to tremble. The ocean grew turbulent, heaving up towering waves and whirlpools. Meteors rained down from the sky and great portents appeared. Trees, as if of their own accord, shed their branches. All the directions became unsettled, and an inauspicious wind blew with fierce force.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses cosmic portents to signal that a significant birth or event can disturb the moral and social order; it frames human history within a dharmic universe where nature reflects ethical imbalance and impending upheaval.
Bhīṣma describes ominous signs occurring immediately upon someone’s birth: the earth shakes, the sea becomes turbulent with waves and whirlpools, meteors fall, trees drop branches, the quarters grow restless, and an inauspicious wind blows—marking the event as foreboding.