Shloka 20
Śānti-parva Adhyāya 3: Karṇa’s training under Rāma Jāmadagnya and the Bhārgava restriction on the Brahmāstra
सो<हं भूगो: सुदयितां भार्यामपहरं बलात् | महर्षेरभिशापेन कृमिभूतो5पतं भुवि,“एक दिन मैंने भृगुकी प्राणप्यारी पत्नीका बलपूर्वक अपहरण कर लिया। इससे महर्षिने शाप दे दिया और मैं कीड़ा होकर इस पृथ्वीपर गिर पड़ा
so ’haṃ bhṛgoḥ sudayitāṃ bhāryām apaharaṃ balāt | maharṣer abhiśāpena kṛmibhūto ’pataṃ bhuvi ||
Nārada said: “I myself once forcibly abducted the dearly beloved wife of Bhṛgu. Because of that wrongdoing, the great seer pronounced a curse, and I fell to the earth, transformed into a worm.”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even a powerful or revered figure is not exempt from moral law: violating another’s marriage and using force is adharma, and it ripens into suffering through karmic consequence, here expressed as a sage’s curse and a humiliating rebirth.
Nārada recounts a past transgression—he abducted Bhṛgu’s beloved wife by force—and explains that a great seer cursed him for it, causing him to fall to earth in the form of a worm, illustrating the immediate moral gravity of the act.