Shloka 66

Aṣṭāvakra’s Visit to Kubera: Hospitality, Temptation, and the Ethics of Restraint (अष्टावक्र-वैश्रवणोपाख्यानम्)

Devanagari script

भित्त्वा भित्त्वा च कूलानि हुत्वा सर्वमिदं जगत्‌

Transliteration

bhittvā bhittvā ca kūlāni hutvā sarvam idaṃ jagat

Translation

ヴァーユは言った。「幾度も幾度も河岸を破り、供犠の火のごとくこの全世界を呑み尽くす。」この一句は、堤を繰り返し決壊させる洪水のような抗しがたい力を描き、抑えのない権力や情念はひとたび放たれればあらゆる限界を踏み越えて普遍の破滅を招くと警告する。ゆえに、自制とダルマの正しい秩序が倫理的な対衡として暗示されている。

Word by Word

• भित्त्वा: having broken / having split
• भित्त्वा: Karma
• Type: Verb
• Root: भिद् (√भिद्)
• Form: क्त्वा (absolutive/gerund), कर्तरि

• भित्त्वा: again having broken
• भित्त्वा: Karma
• Type: Verb
• Root: भिद् (√भिद्)
• Form: क्त्वा (absolutive/gerund), कर्तरि

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• कूलानि: banks, shores, embankments
• कूलानि: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: कूल
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Plural

• हुत्वा: having offered (as oblation), having sacrificed
• हुत्वा: Karma
• Type: Verb
• Root: हु (√हु)
• Form: क्त्वा (absolutive/gerund), कर्तरि

• सर्वम्: all, entire
• सर्वम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सर्व
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• इदम्: this
• इदम्: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: इदम्
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• जगत्: world, universe
• जगत्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: जगत्
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vāyu (Wind-god)
• kūla (riverbanks/embankments)
• jagat (the world/universe)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses the imagery of repeatedly breached banks and all-consuming fire to suggest that when force (or desire/anger) exceeds rightful bounds, it becomes universally destructive; dharma is implied as the principle that sets and protects necessary limits.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyu speaks in a vivid, compressed metaphor: something powerful surges beyond embankments again and again and then ‘offers up’ (i.e., consumes) the whole world like fire, underscoring the danger of unchecked, boundary-breaking power.