Shloka 4

Go-apahāra (Cattle Theft), Go-dāna (Cow-Gift), and Suvarṇa-dakṣiṇā (Gold Fee): Karmic Consequence and Purificatory Merit

Devanagari script

तस्य चोद्धरणे यत्नमकुर्वस्ते सहस्रश:

Transliteration

tasya coddharaṇe yatnam akurvas te sahasraśaḥ

Translation

അപ്പോൾ ആയിരക്കണക്കിന് ബാലകർ ഒന്നിച്ചു ചേർന്ന് അവനെ പുറത്തെടുക്കാൻ മഹാപ്രയത്നം ചെയ്തു; എന്നാൽ പർവ്വതസമമായ ആ പല്ലി ഇളകിയില്ല.

Word by Word

• तस्य: of him/its
• तस्य: Sambandha
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine/Neuter, Genitive, Singular

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

• उद्धरणे: in (the act of) lifting out / extraction
• उद्धरणे: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: उद्धरण
• Form: Neuter, Locative, Singular

• यत्नम्: effort
• यत्नम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: यत्न
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• अकुर्वन्: they made / they did
• Type: Verb
• Root: कृ
• Form: Imperfect (Laṅ), 3rd, Plural, Parasmaipada

• ते: they
• ते: Karta
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• सहस्रशः: by thousands / in thousands (manyfold)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सहस्रशस्

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores sustained, collective effort (yatna) as a virtue, while implicitly preparing the lesson that some obstacles exceed ordinary capacity and require wiser counsel or higher support.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma narrates that many people—“by the thousands”—undertook strenuous attempts to extract someone/something, emphasizing the scale of effort and the difficulty of the task.