Shloka 27
पात्रलक्षण-परिक्षा (Pātra-Lakṣaṇa Parīkṣā) — Criteria for a Worthy Recipient
पश्य चन्द्रे कृतं लक्ष्म समुद्रो लवणोदकः: । तथा भगसहस््रेण महेन्द्र: परिचिल्वित:
paśya candre kṛtaṃ lakṣma samudro lavaṇodakaḥ | tathā bhagasahasreṇa mahendraḥ paricilvitaḥ ||
पश्य चन्द्रे कृतं लक्ष्म समुद्रो लवणोदकः। तथा भगसहस्रेण महेन्द्रः परिचिह्नितः। माधव, पश्य ब्राह्मणानां प्रभावम्—चन्द्रे कलङ्कं न्यधुः, समुद्रं लवणोदकं चकारुः, महेन्द्रस्य च शरीरे सहस्रं भगचिह्नं जनयामासुः; पुनश्च तेषामेव प्रभावात् तानि चिह्नानि नेत्रत्वं गतानि, येन शतक्रतुः ‘सहस्राक्ष’ इति प्रसिद्धोऽभवत्।
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical potency attributed to Brāhmaṇical tapas and speech: it can impose consequences on even cosmic entities, and it also has the capacity to transmute misfortune into a new, meaningful form—suggesting responsibility in the use of spiritual power and the possibility of redemptive transformation.
Vāyu points to well-known mythic outcomes credited to Brāhmaṇas’ influence: a blemish on the Moon, the ocean becoming salt-water, and Indra being marked with a thousand ‘bhaga’ signs that later become ‘eyes’, explaining Indra’s epithet ‘Sahasrākṣa’ (thousand-eyed).