Shloka 65
Indratīrtha–Ādityatīrtha: Balarāma’s Ritual Bathing, Dāna, and Sacred-Historical Recollections
दृष्टवाप्सरसमायान्तीं घृताचीं पृुथुलोचनाम् । वैशम्पायनजीने कहा--राजन्! एक दिन विशाल नेत्रोंवाली घृताची अप्सरा कहींसे आ रही थी। उसे देखकर महात्मा महर्षि भरद्वाजका वीर्य स्खलित हो गया ।। सतु जग्राह तद्रेत: करेण जपतां वर:
dṛṣṭvāpsarasam āyāntīṃ ghṛtācīṃ pṛthulocanām | vaiśampāyana uvāca—rājan! ekadā viśālākṣī ghṛtācy apsarā kutacit samāyāntī āsīt | tāṃ dṛṣṭvā mahātmanaḥ maharṣer bharadvājasya vīryaṃ skhalitam || sa tu jagrāha tad retaḥ kareṇa japatāṃ varaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O King, once the wide-eyed apsaras Ghṛtācī was coming from somewhere. Seeing her, the great-souled sage Bharadvāja involuntarily emitted his seed. The foremost of those engaged in sacred recitation then gathered that semen in his hand.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights the vulnerability of even great ascetics to sensory attraction and the ethical ideal of vigilance and self-restraint; it also frames bodily impulse as something to be managed consciously rather than indulged, preserving tapas and purpose.
Vaiśampāyana narrates that the apsaras Ghṛtācī passes by; the sage Bharadvāja, upon seeing her, has an involuntary seminal emission, and he then collects the semen in his hand—an episode typically used to set up subsequent lineage or consequential events.