Shloka 19
Guṇa-vibhāga and Prāṇa–Agni–Yoga Upadeśa (गुणविभाग तथा प्राण-अग्नि-योगोपदेश)
त॑ निहत्य महाराज वन त्वं गन्तुमरहसि । शेते लोकविनाशाय तप आस्थाय दारुणम्
taṁ nihatya mahārāja vana tvaṁ gantum arhasi | śete lokavināśāya tapa āsthāya dāruṇam ||
Uttanka said: “O great king, after slaying him you should proceed to the forest. For he lies there, undertaking a dreadful austerity, intent on the destruction of the worlds.”
उत्तड़क उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames royal violence as ethically permissible only when it prevents greater harm: the king is urged to act decisively against a threat whose ascetic power is being directed toward universal destruction, emphasizing the ruler’s duty to protect the world (loka-saṁrakṣaṇa) over personal hesitation.
Uttanka addresses a king and instructs him that, after killing a dangerous adversary, he should go into the forest, where that figure is said to be lying in severe austerity with the aim of destroying the worlds—indicating an urgent, high-stakes threat tied to misused tapas.