Shloka 326

Kapālamocana-tīrtha (Auśanasa) and Balarāma’s Sarasvatī Pilgrimage

Devanagari script

आपगामवगाढस्य राजन प्रक्रीडितं महत्‌ । राजन! कुमारावस्थासे ही ब्रह्मचर्यव्रतका पालन तथा प्रतिदिन सरस्वती नदीमें स्नान करनेवाले मंकणक मुनिका महान्‌ लीलामय चरित्र सुनो

Transliteration

āpāgām avagāḍhasya rājan prakrīḍitaṃ mahat | rājan! kumārāvasthāse hi brahmacaryavratakā pālana tathā pratidina sarasvatī-nadīṃ snāna-karṇavāle maṅkaṇaka-muneḥ mahān līlāmaya-caritraṃ śṛṇu |

Translation

ರಾಜನ್! ನದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವಗಾಹನ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ಮಂಕಣಕ ಮುನಿಯ ಆ ಮಹತ್ತಾದ ಕ್ರೀಡಾಮಯ ಪ್ರಸಂಗವನ್ನು ಕೇಳು—ಅವನು ಬಾಲ್ಯದಿಂದಲೇ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಚರ್ಯವ್ರತವನ್ನು ಪಾಲಿಸಿ, ಪ್ರತಿದಿನ ಸರಸ್ವತೀ ನದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ನಾನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದನು.

Word by Word

आपगाम्river (as object: the river)

अवगाढस्यof (one) immersed/entered (in it)

राजन्O king

प्रक्रीडितम्sporting/playing; sport (act of play)

महत्great

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

rājan (the King, i.e., Janamejaya as listener)

Maṅkaṇaka Muni

Sarasvatī River

āpāgā (river-stream)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse foregrounds the ethical value of sustained discipline—especially brahmacarya and regular purificatory practice—while preparing the listener for a story that also cautions that even spiritual achievement can be accompanied by exuberance that must be governed by humility and self-control.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana addresses the King and introduces an upcoming episode about the sage Maṅkaṇaka: his great, playful act while immersed in a river-stream, along with background details that he observed brahmacarya from boyhood and bathed daily in the Sarasvatī.