Shloka 35
Aṣṭāvakra’s Visit to Kubera: Hospitality, Temptation, and the Ethics of Restraint (अष्टावक्र-वैश्रवणोपाख्यानम्)
ततः प्रणम्य शिरसा इदं वचनमन्रुवम् । यदि प्रीतो महादेवो भक्त्या परमया प्रभु:
tataḥ praṇamya śirasā idaṁ vacanam abruvam | yadi prīto mahādevo bhaktyā paramayā prabhuḥ ||
ततः प्रणम्य शिरसा इदं वचनमब्रुवम्—यदि प्रीतो महादेवो भक्त्या परमया प्रभुः, ईशान! तव मे नित्यं भक्तिर्भवतु ध्रुवा॥ ततः “एवमस्तु” इति प्रोक्त्वा भगवान् शिवस्तत्रैवान्तरधीयत॥
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the highest request is not for power or reward but for unwavering devotion itself; humility (bowing the head) and constancy of bhakti are presented as the proper ethical-spiritual posture before the divine.
The narrator (Vaiśampāyana, reporting the episode) describes a devotee bowing and asking Śiva (Mahādeva/Īśāna) for perpetual, steady devotion; Śiva grants the request with “evam astu” and then disappears.