Shloka 15

कृपकृपी-जननम्

The Birth of Kṛpa and Kṛpī; Kṛpa’s Attainment of Astras

Devanagari script

पाण्डुरुवाच अप्रजस्य महाभागा न द्वारं परिचक्षते,पाण्डुने कहा--महाभाग महर्षिगण! संतानहीनके लिये स्वर्गका दरवाजा बंद रहता है, ऐसा लोग कहते हैं। मैं भी संतानहीन हूँ, इसलिये दुःखसे संतप्त होकर आपलोगोंसे कुछ निवेदन करता हूँ। तपोधनो! मैं पितरोंके ऋणसे अबतक छूट नहीं सका हूँ, इसलिये चिन्तासे संतप्त हो रहा हूँ

Transliteration

pāṇḍur uvāca aprajasya mahābhāgā na dvāraṃ paricakṣate |

Translation

Pāṇḍu said: “O greatly fortunate sages, people declare that for one who has no offspring, the gate (to heaven and higher worlds) is not opened. I too am without children; therefore, afflicted by sorrow, I submit this request to you. O possessors of austerity, I have not yet been freed from the debt owed to the ancestors; hence I am tormented by anxiety.”

Word by Word

• {'pāṇḍuḥ': 'King Pāṇḍu', 'uvāca': 'said', 'aprajasya': 'of one without offspring

• childless', 'mahābhāgāḥ': 'greatly fortunate

• venerable (vocative plural)', 'na': 'not', 'dvāram': 'gate

• doorway (figuratively, access to heaven/merit)', 'paricakṣate': 'they point out/declare

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Pāṇḍu
• mahārṣigaṇa (company of great sages)
• pitaraḥ (ancestors)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse foregrounds the dharmic idea of pitṛ-ṛṇa: one is obligated to continue the lineage and offer ancestral rites; childlessness is portrayed as a spiritual and ethical anxiety because it threatens the fulfillment of duties to the ancestors and the continuity of dharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

King Pāṇḍu addresses a group of sages, lamenting his lack of offspring and the resulting fear that he cannot discharge his ancestral obligations; he prepares to petition them for guidance or means to obtain children and thereby fulfill his duties.