Shloka 39
अम्बाया रामजामदग्न्यशरणगमनम्
Ambā Seeks Refuge with Rāma Jāmadagnya
भीष्मं जहि महाबाहो यत्कृते दृःखमीदृशम् । प्राप्ताहं भगुशार्दूल चराम्यप्रियमुत्तमम्,महाबाहु भृगुसिंह! आप भीष्मको ही मार डालिये, जिसके कारण मुझे ऐसा दुःख प्राप्त हुआ है और मैं इस प्रकार विवश होकर अत्यन्त अप्रिय आचरणमें प्रवृत्त हुई हूँ
bhīṣmaṃ jahi mahābāho yatkṛte duḥkham īdṛśam | prāptāhaṃ bhṛguśārdūla carāmy apriyam uttamam || mahābāhu bhṛgusiṃha |
O mighty-armed one, slay Bhīṣma—for because of him I have come to such suffering. O tiger among the Bhṛgus, I am driven to act in a manner most unwelcome and contrary to what is right for me.
राम उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how personal anguish can push one toward extreme, ethically fraught demands—here, urging a revered warrior’s death. It implicitly raises the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between righteous restraint and retaliatory violence when honor and suffering collide.
Rāma addresses Paraśurāma (called ‘tiger/lion among the Bhṛgus’) and urges him to kill Bhīṣma, blaming Bhīṣma as the cause of her intense suffering and explaining that she has been compelled into conduct she finds deeply unwelcome.