Shloka 3
अर्जुनस्य लक्ष्यवेधः
Arjuna’s Hitting of the Target at the Svayaṃvara
गर्भानपि यदा यूय॑ भृगूणां घ्नत पुत्रका: । तदायमूरुणा गर्भो मया वर्षशतं धृत:,बच्चो! जबसे तुमलोग भृगुवंशियोंके गर्भस्थ बालकोंकी भी हत्या करने लगे, तबसे मैंने अपने इस गर्भको सौ वर्षोतक एक जाँघमें छिपाकर रखा था
garbhān api yadā yūyaṁ bhṛgūṇāṁ ghnata putrakāḥ | tadāyam ūrūṇā garbho mayā varṣaśataṁ dhṛtaḥ ||
ลูกทั้งหลาย เมื่อพวกเจ้าริเริ่มสังหารแม้กระทั่งทารกในครรภ์แห่งตระกูลภฤคุ ตั้งแต่นั้นมาแม่ได้ซ่อนครรภ์นี้ไว้ที่ต้นขาและอุ้มชูไว้ถึงร้อยปี
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns the escalation of violence to the point of killing the unborn, and highlights the ethical impulse to protect life even amid cycles of vengeance; Vasiṣṭha’s act of concealment underscores restraint and safeguarding dharma when society collapses into indiscriminate slaughter.
Vasiṣṭha addresses the perpetrators as “sons,” stating that once they began killing even the unborn children of the Bhṛgu clan, he concealed and carried an embryo on his thigh for a hundred years to preserve it from that massacre.