Shloka 18
Adhyāya 76: Kuṇḍina-praveśaḥ, Bhīmena satkāraḥ, Ṛtuparṇa-kṣamā, Aśvahṛdaya-pratyarpanam
Nala’s Reception and Reconciliation
यत् त्वया धर्मकृच्छे तु शापेनाभिहत: पुरा । वनस्थया दुःखितया शोचन्त्या मां दिवानिशम्,“पहले जब तुम वनमें दुखी होकर दिन-रात मेरे लिये शोक करती थी और उस समय धर्मसंकटमें पड़नेपर तुमने जिसे शाप दे दिया था, वही कलियुग मेरे शरीरमें तुम्हारी शापग्निसे दग्ध होता हुआ निवास करता था, जैसे आगमें रखी हुई आग हो; उसी प्रकार वह कलि तुम्हारे शापसे दग्ध हो सदा मेरे भीतर रहता था
yat tvayā dharmakṛcchre tu śāpenābhihataḥ purā | vanasthayā duḥkhitayā śocantyā māṃ divāniśam ||
Bṛhadaśva said: “Formerly, when you were dwelling in the forest—afflicted with sorrow and lamenting for me day and night—at a moment of grave moral crisis you uttered a curse. From that time, the force of that curse struck and burned within me, remaining lodged in my body like fire placed within fire.”
बृहदश्चव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how actions and especially spoken words (a curse uttered in a dharma-crisis) can have enduring consequences; ethical pressure does not remove responsibility for what one chooses to say and do.
Bṛhadaśva recalls an earlier time in the forest when the listener, overwhelmed by grief and facing a moral predicament, pronounced a curse; he explains that its effect struck him and continued to burn within him thereafter.