Shloka 32
बकवधोत्तर-प्रशमनम् | Post-slaying Stabilization after Baka’s Death
को हि सुप्तानिमान् भ्रातृन् दत्त्वा राक्षमभोजनम् | मातरं च नरो गच्छेत् कामार्त इव मद्विध:,मुझ-जैसा कौन पुरुष कामपीड़ितकी भाँति इन सोये हुए भाइयों और माताको राक्षणषका भोजन बनाकर (अन्यत्र) जा सकता है?
ko hi suptān imān bhrātṝn dattvā rākṣam abhojanam | mātaraṃ ca naro gacchet kāmārta iva madvidhaḥ ||
Bhīmasena said: “What man like me, driven by desire as though love-stricken, could go elsewhere after leaving these sleeping brothers and our mother to become food for a rākṣasa?”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds dharma as protective responsibility: a strong person must not abandon sleeping, vulnerable kin—especially mother and brothers—for personal desire or private aims. Bhīma frames leaving them as morally unthinkable, contrasting duty with kāma-driven impulse.
Bhīma speaks in a tense situation involving a rākṣasa threat. He rejects the idea of going elsewhere while his mother and brothers lie asleep and defenseless, insisting that abandoning them would be like handing them over as prey to the rākṣasa.