Shloka 14
यत्र कूर्माग्रजं हस्ती सदा कर्षत्यवाड्मुख: । तयोर्जन्मान्तरे वैरं सम्प्रवक्ष्याम्यशेषत:
yatra kūrmāgrajaṃ hastī sadā karṣaty avāḍmukhaḥ | tayor janmāntare vairaṃ sampravakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ ||
“There, the elephant—its face turned downward—constantly drags along the elder brother of the tortoise. I shall now relate, in full, the enmity that arose between those two in a former birth.”
कश्यप उवाच
Educational Q&A
Hostility and suffering are often portrayed as consequences of prior actions; the verse frames present conflict as rooted in past-life enmity, emphasizing karmic continuity and moral causation.
Kaśyapa points to a scene where an elephant keeps dragging the tortoise’s elder brother and announces that he will now recount the complete backstory—how these two became enemies in a previous birth.