Shloka 33
सत्यवागस्तु स मुनि: कृमिर्मा दशतामयम् | तक्षको नाम भूत्वा वै तथा परिहृतं भवेत्,“वे मुनि सत्यवादी हों, इसके लिये यह कीट ही तक्षक नाम धारण करके मुझे डँस ले। ऐसा करनेसे मेरे दोषका परिहार हो जायगा
satyavāg astu sa muniḥ kṛmir mā daśatām ayam | takṣako nāma bhūtvā vai tathā parihṛtaṃ bhavet ||
Takṣaka said: “May that sage indeed be a speaker of truth. Let this very worm bite me; becoming ‘Takṣaka’ in name, it will thus remove (or atone for) my fault.”
तक्षक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical weight of truthfulness and the inevitability of consequences: even when harm is imminent, the speaker frames it as a means to remove fault, implying that wrongdoing seeks expiation and that truthful speech (satyavāk) is a decisive moral standard.
Takṣaka speaks about a situation where a worm/insect is to bite him; he expresses a wish that the sage be truly truthful, and that the biting—under the name ‘Takṣaka’—will serve to neutralize or atone for his own culpability in the unfolding events.