Shloka 20
पाण्डोः प्रेतकार्य-सम्पादनम्
Pāṇḍu’s Funeral Rites and Public Mourning
अस्यां मृग्यां च राजेन्द्र हर्षान्मैथुनमाचरम् । पुरुषार्थफलं कर्तु तत् त्वया विफलीकृतम्,राजेन्द्र! मैं बड़े हर्ष और उललासके साथ अपने कामरूपी पुरुषार्थको सफल करनेके लिये इस मृगीके साथ मैथुन कर रहा था; किंतु तुमने उसे निष्फल कर दिया
asyāṁ mṛgyāṁ ca rājendra harṣān maithunam ācaram | puruṣārthaphalaṁ kartuṁ tat tvayā viphālīkṛtam ||
“O king, I was, in great delight, engaging in union with this doe in order to fulfill the fruit of my human striving—desire itself. But you have rendered that act fruitless.” In context, the deer’s speech frames the king’s interruption as a violation of natural and ethical boundaries: an act driven by royal power that disrupts another being’s rightful pursuit of its own life-impulse, and thus becomes the seed of moral consequence.
मृग उवाच
Educational Q&A
Power used without restraint—especially when it violates another being’s rightful sphere—creates moral fault and invites consequence. The verse highlights how even a ‘natural’ pursuit like kāma becomes ethically charged when disrupted by violence or arrogance.
A male deer addresses a king, saying that he was joyfully mating with a doe to fulfill the fruit of desire (kāma as a puruṣārtha), but the king’s intervention has thwarted it. The speech functions as a reproach that frames the king’s act as wrongful and consequential.