Shloka 10
Cavana’s Tests of Kuśika and the Queen (अध्याय ५३: च्यवन–कुशिक-परिक्षा)
जलौकसां स सत्त्वानां बभूव प्रियदर्शन: । उपाजिघ्रन्त च तदा तस्योष्ठ॑ हृष्टमानसा:
jalaukasāṃ sa sattvānāṃ babhūva priyadarśanaḥ | upājighranta ca tadā tasyauṣṭhaṃ hṛṣṭamānasāḥ ||
ಭೀಷ್ಮನು ಹೇಳಿದರು—ನೀರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ವಾಸಿಸುವ ಜೀವಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಅವನು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಪ್ರಿಯದರ್ಶನನಾಗಿ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿದ್ದನು. ಆಗ ಅವರು ಹರ್ಷಿತಮನಸ್ಸಿನಿಂದ ಹತ್ತಿರ ಬಂದು ಅವನ ತುಟಿಗಳನ್ನು ವಾಸನೆ ನೋಡತೊಡಗಿದರು.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a quality of gentleness and auspicious presence: even non-human beings respond with trust and delight. In dharma-literature, such imagery often supports the ethical ideal that purity of conduct and harmlessness naturally elicit goodwill from all creatures.
Bhīṣma describes a scene in which water-dwelling creatures find a certain person pleasing to look at and, feeling joyful, approach closely and sniff his lips—an intimate sign of fearlessness and attraction in animals, indicating the person’s benign, agreeable nature.