Shloka 25
Adhyaya 3 — The Dharmapakshis’ Past-Life Curse and Indra’s Test of Truthfulness
तत् कुरुष्वामलमते मत्त्राणायाचलां मतिम् ।
प्रयच्छ भक्ष्यं विप्रर्षे प्राणयात्राक्षमं मम ॥
tat kuruṣvāmalamate mattrāṇāyācalāṃ matim | prayaccha bhakṣyaṃ viprarṣe prāṇayātrākṣamaṃ mama ||
Ainsi, ô toi dont l’intelligence est sans tache, résous fermement de me protéger. Accorde-moi de la nourriture, ô sage brahmane—juste assez pour ma simple subsistance (pour la continuité de ma vie).
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FAQs
The verse foregrounds dharma as compassionate support: when one capable of aid (here, a vipra-ṛṣi) is approached, the immediate duty is protection and providing basic sustenance—‘prāṇa-yātrā’—before any higher aims. It implies an ethic of minimum guaranteed care: preserving life is a primary obligation.
This verse is not directly a pancalakṣaṇa item (sarga, pratisarga, vaṃśa, manvantara, vaṃśānucarita). It belongs more to ācāra/dharma instruction embedded in narrative (a common Purāṇic mode), rather than cosmogenesis or genealogical chronology.
‘Acalā mati’ (unwavering resolve) suggests steadiness of buddhi as the inner ‘protection’ that enables right action; the request for only ‘prāṇa-yātrā’ frames desire as restrained and sattvic—seeking survival, not indulgence—an inner marker of dharmic exchange between seeker and giver.