Shloka 23
Gratitude, Discernment, and the Escalation of Power (Śvā–Dvipī–Vyāghra–Nāga–Siṃha–Śarabha Itihāsa)
न मूलफलभोगेषु स्पृहामप्यकरोत् तदा । यथा मृगपतिर्नित्यं प्रकाड्क्षति वनौकस: । तथैव स महाराज व्याप्र: समभवत् तदा
na mūla-phalabhogeṣu spṛhām apy akarot tadā | yathā mṛga-patir nityaṁ prakāṅkṣati vanaukasaḥ | tathaiva sa mahārāja vyāghraḥ samabhavat tadā ||
ಮಹಾರಾಜನೇ! ಆಗ ಅವನಿಗೆ ಬೇರು-ಹಣ್ಣುಗಳ ಭೋಗದ ಮೇಲೂ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪವೂ ಆಸೆ ಉಳಿಯಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಹೇಗೆ ಮೃಗಪತಿ ಸಿಂಹವು ನಿತ್ಯವೂ ಅರಣ್ಯಜೀವಿಗಳ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ಬಯಸುತ್ತದೋ, ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಅವನು ಆ ವೇಳೆಗೆ ಹುಲಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾಂಸಾಹಾರಿಯಾಗಿಬಿಟ್ಟನು।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how desire and habituation can shift one’s mode of living: abandoning a restrained diet (roots and fruits) and turning toward predatory consumption. Ethically, it cautions that repeated craving can transform character and conduct, even against earlier restraint.
Bhīṣma describes a change in behavior: the subject (likened to a tiger) loses all inclination for a simple, ascetic diet and becomes meat-eating, illustrated through the analogy of a lion’s constant appetite for the flesh of forest animals.