Shloka 2
स्कन्दसेनापत्याभिषेकः
Skanda’s Consecration as Devasenāpati
युधिछिर उवाच कथमन्निर्वनं यातः कथं चाप्यज्िरा: पुरा । नष्टेउग्नौ हव्यमवहदन्निर्भूत्वा महाद्युति:,युधिष्ठिरने पूछा--मुने! पूर्वकालमें अग्निदेवने किस कारणसे जलमें प्रवेश किया था? और अग्निके अदृश्य हो जानेपर महातेजस्वी अंगिरा ऋषिने किस प्रकार अग्नि होकर देवताओंके लिये हविष्य पहुँचानेका कार्य किया?
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | katham agnir vanaṃ yātaḥ kathaṃ cāpy aṅgirāḥ purā | naṣṭe 'gnau havyam avahad agnir bhūtvā mahādyutiḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “How did Agni come to enter the forest, and why did he formerly go into the waters? And when Agni had disappeared, how did the great-lustrous sage Aṅgirā, becoming Agni, carry the oblations for the gods?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the indispensability of yajña and the continuity of sacred duty: even when the visible agent (Agni) is absent, the cosmic and ethical order is maintained through a qualified substitute (Aṅgirā), showing that dharma is upheld by divine and ṛṣi power.
Yudhiṣṭhira questions the sage about an earlier episode: why Agni entered the forest and then the waters, and how, after Agni’s disappearance, the radiant ṛṣi Aṅgirā assumed Agni’s role to convey offerings to the gods.