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 ||
Wika ni Vāyu: “Masdan—sa kapangyarihan ng mga Brāhmaṇa, nalagyan ng dungis ang Buwan; ang tubig ng dagat ay ginawang maalat; at si Mahendra (Indra) ay tinatakan ng isang libong tanda ng ‘bhaga’. Pagkaraan, sa gayon ding impluwensiya, ang mga tandang iyon ay naging ‘mga mata’, kaya si Śatakratu Indra ay nakilala bilang ‘Sahasrākṣa’ (ang may sanlibong mata).”
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).