Shloka 24
भरतचरितम्—मृगासक्ति-हेतुकः समाधिभङ्गः, जातिस्मरत्वं, रहूगण-जाḍभरत-संवादः
किं वृकैर् भक्षितो व्याघ्रैः किं सिंहेन निपातितः चिरायमाणे निष्क्रान्ते तस्यासीद् इति मानसम्
kiṃ vṛkair bhakṣito vyāghraiḥ kiṃ siṃhena nipātitaḥ cirāyamāṇe niṣkrānte tasyāsīd iti mānasam
“Was he devoured by wolves? Torn apart by tigers? Or struck down by a lion?”—when the one who had gone out did not return for a long time, such anxious thoughts arose in his mind.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: The psychological cascade of attachment into anxiety and fear of loss
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: compassionate
Concept: Attachment matures into fear (bhaya) and obsessive imagining of harm when the object of clinging is absent.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: When anxious projections arise, return to breath, mantra, and remembrance of the Lord’s guardianship; reduce identification with outcomes.
Vishishtadvaita: Security is found in śaraṇāgati (taking refuge in Viṣṇu), not in controlling the fragile world.
FAQs
It highlights the human, vulnerable side of royal-life storytelling—how uncertainty and delayed return trigger fear—grounding the larger dynastic history in lived emotion and dharmic concern.
He uses brief, vivid inner monologue—questions and possibilities—to show how the mind reacts to delay and danger, making the historical narrative ethically and emotionally intelligible.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Purāṇa’s underlying frame is that worldly fear and fate unfold within Vishnu’s sovereign order; human anxiety implicitly points to the need for divine refuge and dharmic steadiness.