Shloka 263

Agni’s Withdrawal to the Forest and Identification with Āṅgirasa (अग्न्याङ्गिरस-इतिहासः)

Devanagari script

येषां क्रोधाग्निरद्यापि दण्डके नोपशाम्यति | ब्राह्मणोंके ही क्रोधका फल है कि समुद्रका पानी खारा एवं पीनेके अयोग्य बना दिया गया। इसी प्रकार जिनकी तपस्या बहुत बढ़ी-चढ़ी थी और जिनका अन्त:करण परम पवित्र हो चुका था ऐसे मुनियोंने भी जो क्रोधकी आग प्रज्वलित की थी, वह आज भी दण्डकारण्यमें बुझ नहीं पा रही है

Transliteration

yeṣāṁ krodhāgnir adyāpi daṇḍake nopaśāmyati |

Translation

El brahmán dijo: “En el bosque de Dandaka, el fuego de la ira encendido por ciertos sabios no se ha apagado hasta el día de hoy. Tal es la consecuencia del enojo: se dice que las aguas del océano se volvieron saladas e impropias para beber por la ira de un brāhmaṇa; del mismo modo, aun los ascetas de austeridad inmensa y corazón purificado, cuando prenden la llama de la cólera, dejan efectos que perduran y siguen abrasando el mundo.”

Word by Word

• {'yeṣām': 'of whom

• of those (genitive plural)', 'krodha': 'anger, wrath', 'agniḥ (krodhāgniḥ)': 'fire

• metaphorically, the burning force of anger', 'adyāpi': 'even today

• still now', 'daṇḍake': 'in Daṇḍaka (forest/region)

• locative singular', 'na': 'not', 'upaśāmyati': 'is calmed, subsides, is extinguished (present tense)'}

Speaker

ब्राह्मण उवाच

Characters & Entities

• ब्राह्मण (Brahmin speaker)
• दण्डक (Daṇḍaka forest / Daṇḍakāraṇya)
• समुद्र (the ocean)
• मुनि (sages/ascetics)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Anger, even in the spiritually advanced, can produce long-lasting harm; therefore self-restraint is essential to dharma. Tapas and purity do not justify wrath—uncontrolled krodha can scar places and peoples for generations.

What is happening in the narrative?

A Brahmin speaker points to Dandaka as an example where the ‘fire of anger’ has not cooled, and reinforces the point with a traditional illustration: a Brahmin’s wrath is said to have made the ocean’s water salty and undrinkable—showing the destructive potency of anger.