Shloka 163
उद्योगपर्व (अध्याय १२९) — केशवस्य वैभवप्रदर्शनम् / Krishna’s Theophanic Display in the Kuru Assembly
पटेनाग्निं प्रजवबलितं यथा बाला यथा जडा: । “जैसे बालक और जड बुद्धिवाले लोग जलती आगको कपड़ेमें बाँधना चाहें, उसी प्रकार ये मन्दबुद्धि कौरव इन कमलनयन भगवान् श्रीकृष्णको यहाँ कैद करना चाहते हैं!
paṭenāgniṁ prajvalitaṁ yathā bālā yathā jaḍāḥ |
Vaiśampāyana said: Just as foolish children or dull-witted people might try to wrap a blazing fire in cloth, so these misguided Kauravas seek to imprison here Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the lotus-eyed Lord—an act as impossible as it is morally blind.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Arrogance and moral blindness lead to self-destructive choices: attempting to restrain the righteous and the divine is both impossible and ethically corrupt, like trying to bind fire with cloth.
In the Udyoga Parva context of failed diplomacy, the Kauravas contemplate detaining Kṛṣṇa; the narrator condemns this as foolish and futile through the simile of wrapping a blazing fire in cloth.