Adhyāya 90: Babhruvāhana’s Reception and the Commencement of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Aśvamedha
स्वर्गार्गलं लोभबीजं रागगुप्तं दुरासदम् । त॑ तु पश्यन्ति पुरुषा जितक्रोधा जितेन्द्रिया:
svargārgaḷaṃ lobhabījaṃ rāgaguptaṃ durāsadam | taṃ tu paśyanti puruṣā jitakrodhā jitendriyāḥ ||
“It is the bolt that bars the way to heaven, the seed of greed, hidden under attachment, and hard to overcome. Yet those men who have conquered anger and mastered their senses are able to perceive it (clearly) and thus guard themselves against it.”
श्षशुर उवाच
Greed, concealed by attachment, becomes a powerful inner obstruction to spiritual good; only those who conquer anger and restrain the senses can recognize this obstacle and avoid being bound by it.
The speaker (identified as the father-in-law) delivers a moral instruction, describing an inner vice as a ‘bolt’ blocking heaven and praising the disciplined—those free from anger and sense-indulgence—as capable of discerning and overcoming it.