Shloka 21
Adhyaya 90 — The Slaying of Shumbha and the Reabsorption of the Goddesses into Ambika
स क्षिप्तो धरणीं प्राप्य मुष्टिमुद्यम्य वेगितः ।
अभ्यधावत दुष्टात्मा चण्डिकानिधनेच्छया ॥
sa kṣipto dharaṇīṃ prāpya muṣṭim udyamya vegitaḥ /
abhyadhāvata duṣṭātmā caṇḍikā-nidhane-cchayā
पतिता सा भूमिं प्राप; स तु मुष्टिं समुद्धृत्य क्रोधवेगेनाभिद्रुत्य दुष्टात्मा चण्डिकां हन्तुमैच्छत्।
FAQs
Unchecked ego (asuric will) doubles down even after humiliation; the verse portrays how malice persists until it meets decisive restraint—an ethical warning about anger and obsession.
Itihāsa-like exemplum within Manvantara framing; not cosmogony, but dharma-illustration embedded in a manvantaric setting.
The ‘raised fist’ is the hardening of will (ahaṅkāra); charging at the Divine indicates the mind’s attempt to dominate reality—ending in the dissolution of that delusion.