Shloka 9
मārkaṇḍeya-ukta yuddha-vyūha-pratyavyūhaḥ
Battle Formations and Countermeasures in the Rāmopākhyāna
यथा च वेणु: कदली नलो वा फलन्त्यभावाय न भूतये55त्मन: । तथैव मां तै: परिरक्ष्यमाणा- मादास्यसे कर्कटकीव गर्भम्,“अरे मूर्ख! जैसे बाँस, केला और नरकुल--ये अपने विनाशके लिये ही फलते हैं, समृद्धिके लिये नहीं तथा जैसे केकड़ेकी मादा अपनी मृत्युके लिये ही गर्भ धारण करती है, उसी प्रकार तू पाण्डवोंद्वारा सदा सुरक्षित मुझ द्रौपदीका अपनी मृत्युके लिये ही अपहरण करना चाहता है”
vaiśampāyana uvāca | yathā ca veṇuḥ kadalī nalo vā phalanty abhāvāya na bhūtaye 'tmanaḥ | tathaiva māṃ taiḥ parirakṣyamāṇām ādāsyase karkaṭakīva garbham ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Just as bamboo, the banana plant, and the reed bear fruit only for their own undoing, not for their flourishing, and just as a female crab carries eggs that become the cause of her death—so too, by trying to seize me, Draupadī, who am always protected by the Pāṇḍavas, you are in fact taking up your own destruction.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Wrongdoing aimed at the vulnerable rebounds upon the wrongdoer: when a person attacks someone under rightful protection, the act becomes self-destructive. The verse uses natural metaphors to stress that certain actions ‘ripen’ only into ruin, not prosperity.
In the Vana Parva context, Draupadī is being threatened with abduction. She warns the would-be abductor that attempting to seize her—while she is under the constant protection of the Pāṇḍavas—will bring about his own death, just as some plants fruit to their own detriment and as the female crab’s carried eggs are said to lead to her demise.