Shloka 143
Vṛddha-kanyā-carita and Balarāma’s Kurukṣetra Inquiry (वृद्धकन्या-चरितम् / कुरुक्षेत्रफल-प्रश्नः)
प्रतिगृह्लीष्व पुत्र स््व॑ मया दत्तमनिन्दितम् | “ब्रह्मर्ष! यह आपका पुत्र है। इसे आपके प्रति भक्ति होनेके कारण मैंने अपने गर्भमें धारण किया था। ब्रह्मर्ष] पहले अलम्बुषा नामक अप्सराको देखकर जो आपका वीर्य स्खलित हुआ था, उसे आपके प्रति भक्ति होनेके कारण मैंने अपने गर्भमें धारण कर लिया था; क्योंकि मेरे मनमें यह विचार हुआ था कि आपका यह तेज नष्ट न होने पावे। अत: आप मेरे दिये हुए अपने इस अनिन्दनीय पुत्रको ग्रहण कीजिये”
pratigṛhlīṣva putra sva mayā dattam aninditam |
Vaiśampāyana said: “O blameless one, accept your own son—this faultless child whom I have given. Out of devotion to you, I bore within my womb the seed that had fallen from you earlier upon seeing the apsaras Alambuṣā, thinking, ‘May this radiance of the brahmarṣi not be lost.’ Therefore, receive this irreproachable son that I now offer.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage emphasizes safeguarding spiritual potency (tejas) and taking responsibility for its consequences: devotion motivates the preservation of a sage’s power, and dharma is fulfilled when the rightful parent accepts the child without blame.
A speaker (in the frame narrative, Vaiśampāyana) reports a scene where someone presents a child to a brahmarṣi, explaining that the child was conceived by preserving the sage’s fallen seed after he saw the apsaras Alambuṣā, and urges him to accept the son as his own.