Shloka 10
Cavana’s Tests of Kuśika and the Queen (अध्याय ५३: च्यवन–कुशिक-परिक्षा)
जलौकसां स सत्त्वानां बभूव प्रियदर्शन: । उपाजिघ्रन्त च तदा तस्योष्ठ॑ हृष्टमानसा:
jalaukasāṃ sa sattvānāṃ babhūva priyadarśanaḥ | upājighranta ca tadā tasyauṣṭhaṃ hṛṣṭamānasāḥ ||
Bhīṣma nói: “Đối với các loài thủy cư, ông hiện ra thật ưa nhìn. Bấy giờ, lòng chúng hân hoan, chúng bơi đến gần và bắt đầu ngửi đôi môi của ông.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a quality of gentleness and auspicious presence: even non-human beings respond with trust and delight. In dharma-literature, such imagery often supports the ethical ideal that purity of conduct and harmlessness naturally elicit goodwill from all creatures.
Bhīṣma describes a scene in which water-dwelling creatures find a certain person pleasing to look at and, feeling joyful, approach closely and sniff his lips—an intimate sign of fearlessness and attraction in animals, indicating the person’s benign, agreeable nature.