Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
सोऽप्येतामेव मे वत्सो वयोऽवस्थामुपागतः ।
नीतो यदि न घोरेण कृतान्तेनात्मनो वशम् ॥
so ’py etām eva me vatso vayo ’vasthām upāgataḥ | nīto yadi na ghoreṇa kṛtāntenātmano vaśam ||
Đứa con yêu dấu của ta hẳn cũng đã đến đúng tuổi này—nếu nó không bị cuốn đi vào quyền lực đáng sợ của Kṛtānta (Thần Chết).
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The verse confronts the contingency of life and the pain of ‘what might have been,’ steering the listener toward acceptance of kāla while maintaining dharmic compassion.
Again, ākhyāna within royal lineage storytelling; its purpose is moral reflection rather than cosmographic enumeration.
‘Vaśa’ (control) of Kṛtānta points to the ultimate sovereignty over embodied existence; spiritually, it urges a turn from dependence on temporal continuities (age, lineage) to the timeless Self.