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 ||
اے مادھو، دیکھو—برہمنوں کا اثر کیسا زبردست ہے! انہوں نے چاند پر داغ لگا دیا، سمندر کے پانی کو نمکین بنا دیا، اور مہندر (اِندر) کے جسم پر ‘بھگ’ کے ہزار نشان پیدا کر دیے۔ پھر اسی اثر سے وہ نشان آنکھوں میں بدل گئے؛ اسی لیے شتکرتو اِندر ‘سہسرآکش’ (ہزار آنکھوں والا) کے نام سے مشہور ہوا۔
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).