Shloka 20
Śānti-parva Adhyāya 3: Karṇa’s training under Rāma Jāmadagnya and the Bhārgava restriction on the Brahmāstra
सो<हं भूगो: सुदयितां भार्यामपहरं बलात् | महर्षेरभिशापेन कृमिभूतो5पतं भुवि
so ’haṃ bhṛgoḥ sudayitāṃ bhāryām apaharaṃ balāt | maharṣer abhiśāpena kṛmibhūto ’pataṃ bhuvi ||
“ഞാൻ ഭൃഗുവിന്റെ അതിപ്രിയയായ ഭാര്യയെ ബലമായി അപഹരിച്ചു. ആ ദുഷ്കൃത്യത്തിന്റെ ഫലമായി മഹർഷിയുടെ ശാപത്താൽ ഞാൻ പുഴുവായി മാറി ഭൂമിയിൽ പതിച്ചു.”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even a powerful or revered figure is not exempt from moral law: violating another’s marriage and using force is adharma, and it ripens into suffering through karmic consequence, here expressed as a sage’s curse and a humiliating rebirth.
Nārada recounts a past transgression—he abducted Bhṛgu’s beloved wife by force—and explains that a great seer cursed him for it, causing him to fall to earth in the form of a worm, illustrating the immediate moral gravity of the act.