Shloka 23
Gaya’s Seven Aśvamedhas, Payoṣṇī Snāna, and the Śaryāti Sacrifice Locale
Lomaśa–Yudhiṣṭhira Dialogue
युधिछिर उवाच कथं विष्टम्भितस्तेन भगवान् पाकशासन: । किमर्थ भार्गवश्चलापि कोप॑ चक्रे महातपा:,युधिष्ठिरने पूछा--मुने! महातपस्वी भृगुपुत्र महर्षि च्यवनने भगवान् इन्द्रका स्तम्भन कैसे किया? उन्हें इन्द्रपर क्रोध किसलिये हुआ?
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca kathaṁ viṣṭambhitastena bhagavān pākaśāsanaḥ | kimarthaṁ bhārgavaś cyavanopi kopaṁ cakre mahātapāḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “How was the blessed Pākaśāsana (Indra) checked and held back by him? And for what reason did the Bhārgava—Chyavana, that great ascetic—become angry and give way to wrath?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the Mahābhārata’s ethical tension between worldly power and spiritual power: even Indra can be restrained when a great ascetic’s tapas is provoked. It implicitly warns that anger (kopa) in the spiritually powerful has far-reaching consequences, and that rulers and gods alike must respect dharma and the dignity of sages.
Yudhiṣṭhira questions the sage-narrator about an earlier episode: how Indra (Pākaśāsana) was stopped or immobilized by Chyavana, and what provoked Chyavana’s anger. The question sets up the explanation of a conflict between a deity’s authority and a ṛṣi’s ascetic potency.