Shloka 29
सहदेवस्य गोसंख्य-तन्तिपाल-रूपेण विराट-समागमः | Sahadeva’s Audience with Virāṭa as Cattle-Enumerator
Tantipāla
यथा च कर्कटी गर्भमाधत्ते मृत्युमात्मन: । तथाविधमहं मन्ये वासं तव शुचिस्मिते,शुचिस्मिते! जैसे केंकड़ेकी मादा अपने मृत्युके लिये ही गर्भ धारण करती है, उसी प्रकार तुम्हें इस घरमें ठहराना मैं अपने लिये मरणके तुल्य मानती हूँ
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
yathā ca karkaṭī garbham ādhattē mṛtyum ātmanaḥ |
tathāvidham ahaṃ manye vāsaṃ tava śucismite, śucismite ||
اے شُچِسمِتے! جیسے مادہ کیکڑا ایسا حمل اٹھاتی ہے جو بالآخر اسی کی موت کا سبب بنتا ہے، ویسے ہی تمہارا اس گھر میں ٹھہرنا میں اپنے لیے موت کے برابر سمجھتی ہوں۔
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a vivid metaphor to express ethical anxiety: offering shelter or allowing someone to stay can carry grave consequences, and one must weigh responsibility, risk, and duty carefully—especially when danger to oneself or one’s household is foreseen.
A speaker, addressing a woman respectfully as “śucismitā,” declares that permitting her to remain in the house feels like inviting death upon oneself, comparing it to the belief that a female crab’s pregnancy leads to her own destruction—signaling fear of impending peril tied to her presence.