Adhyaya 18 — Arjuna Declines the Throne; Garga Directs Him to Dattatreya; The Gods Defeat the Daityas through Dattatreya’s Vision and the Movement of Lakshmi
ते तां दृष्ट्वाग्रतो दैत्याḥ साभिलाषा मनोभवम् ।
न शेषुरुद्धतं धैर्यान्मनसा वोढुमातुराः ॥
te tāṃ dṛṣṭvāgrato daityāḥ sābhilāṣā manobhavam | na śeṣur uddhataṃ dhairyān manasā voḍhum āturāḥ ||
La voyant devant eux, les Daitya—emplis de convoitise—furent frappés par le désir; ils ne purent demeurer fermes, incapables de supporter l’élan de passion dans leur esprit.
Unrestrained desire destabilizes discernment (viveka). The Daityas’ inability to ‘bear it in the mind’ marks the inner defeat that precedes outer wrongdoing.
Didactic narrative illustrating dharma through psychology; not a pancalakṣaṇa enumerative section.
‘Manobhava’ indicates that bondage begins as a mental construction. The ‘turbulence’ is the prāṇic/psychic disturbance that arises when attention collapses into craving.