Shloka 20
Śānti-parva Adhyāya 3: Karṇa’s training under Rāma Jāmadagnya and the Bhārgava restriction on the Brahmāstra
सो<हं भूगो: सुदयितां भार्यामपहरं बलात् | महर्षेरभिशापेन कृमिभूतो5पतं भुवि
so ’haṃ bhṛgoḥ sudayitāṃ bhāryām apaharaṃ balāt | maharṣer abhiśāpena kṛmibhūto ’pataṃ bhuvi ||
“मैंने भृगु की अत्यन्त प्रिय पत्नी का बलपूर्वक अपहरण किया था। उस अपराध से महर्षि के शाप के कारण मैं कीड़ा बनकर पृथ्वी पर गिर पड़ा।”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even a powerful or revered figure is not exempt from moral law: violating another’s marriage and using force is adharma, and it ripens into suffering through karmic consequence, here expressed as a sage’s curse and a humiliating rebirth.
Nārada recounts a past transgression—he abducted Bhṛgu’s beloved wife by force—and explains that a great seer cursed him for it, causing him to fall to earth in the form of a worm, illustrating the immediate moral gravity of the act.