Shloka 21
Mahāvasu’s Fall by Speech-Error and Release through Devotion (अज-विवादः वसोः शापः विमोचनं च)
प्रदक्षिणमवर्तन्त शुकाश्नाषाश्व भारत | भारत! सहसौ्रों हंस, शतपत्र, सारस, शुक और नीलकण्ठ आदि पक्षी उनकी प्रदक्षिणा करने लगे || २० $ ।। आरणेयस्ततो दिव्यं प्राप्प जन्म महाद्युति:
pradakṣiṇam avartanta śukāśnāśvā bhārata | bhārata! sahasrāṇi haṃsāḥ śatapatrāḥ sārasāḥ śukāś ca nīlakaṇṭhādayaḥ pakṣiṇaḥ teṣāṃ pradakṣiṇāṃ cakruḥ || āraṇeyas tato divyaṃ prāpya janma mahādyutiḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “O Bhārata, birds began to circle them reverently from the right. Thousands of swans, śatapatra-birds, cranes, parrots, and peacocks, and other birds performed circumambulation around them. Thereafter Āraṇeya, of great radiance, attained a divine birth.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Reverence shown to the worthy—here symbolized by creatures performing pradakṣiṇā—signals the presence of dharma and accumulated merit; such merit is portrayed as bearing fruit in an elevated, even divine, rebirth.
Bhīṣma describes an auspicious scene in which many kinds of birds circle the revered figures in a ritual-like manner, after which Āraṇeya is said to attain a divine birth, indicating a favorable karmic outcome.