Shloka 3

भूमिभार-निवारणप्रसङ्गः (Bhūmibhāra-nivāraṇa-prasaṅgaḥ) — The Motif of Relieving Earth’s Burden

Devanagari script

हयमाने भृशं दीप्ते विधिवद्‌ वसुरेतसि । न सम स प्रापतद्‌ वह्लौ तक्षको भयपीडित:ः,क्योंकि अग्नि पूर्णरूपसे प्रज्वयलित थी और उसमें विधिपूर्वक आहुतियाँ दी जा रही थीं तो भी भयसे पीड़ित तक्षक नाग उस अग्निमें नहीं गिरा

Transliteration

havyamāne bhṛśaṁ dīpte vidhivad vasuretasi | na sa samāpapatad vahnau takṣako bhayapīḍitaḥ ||

Translation

แม้ไฟยัญจะลุกโชติช่วงอย่างรุนแรง ได้รับการหล่อเลี้ยงด้วยเนยใส และมีการถวายอาหุติตามพิธีโดยครบถ้วน ตักษกะผู้ถูกความหวาดกลัวบีบคั้นก็หาได้ตกลงสู่เพลิงนั้นไม่

Word by Word

• {'havyamāne': 'when oblations are being offered (into the fire)', 'bhṛśam': 'exceedingly, intensely', 'dīpte': 'blazing, kindled, radiant', 'vidhivat': 'according to prescribed rite, properly', 'vasu-retasi': 'having ghee as its stream

• fed by clarified butter (epithet of sacrificial fire)', 'na': 'not', 'saḥ': 'he (that one)', 'samāpapatat': 'fell into, plunged into', 'vahnau': 'in the fire (locative of vahni)', 'takṣakaḥ': 'Takṣaka (the serpent-king)', 'bhaya-pīḍitaḥ': 'afflicted/tormented by fear'}

Speaker

शौनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śaunaka
• Takṣaka
• vahni (sacrificial fire)
• havis (oblations)
• ghṛta (ghee)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even when a rite is performed with full procedural power, the narrative highlights the counterforce of fear and the instinct for self-preservation; it also gestures to the larger Mahābhārata theme that outcomes arise from a complex interplay of ritual efficacy, personal agency, and unseen protections.

What is happening in the narrative?

During the serpent-sacrifice context, the sacrificial fire is intensely blazing and receiving oblations properly, yet Takṣaka—frightened—does not plunge into the fire, indicating his avoidance of the sacrificial pull at that moment.