Shloka 28

Nārāyaṇasya Guhya-nāmāni Niruktāni (Etymologies of Nārāyaṇa’s Secret Epithets) / नारायणस्य गुह्यनामानि निरुक्तानि

Devanagari script

संवेष्ट्यमानं बहुभिमोहात्‌ तन्तुभिरात्मजै: । कोषकार इवात्मानं वेष्टयन्‌ नावबुध्यसे

Transliteration

saṃveṣṭyamānaṃ bahubhimohāt tantubhir ātmajaiḥ | koṣakāra ivātmānaṃ veṣṭayan nāvabudhyase ||

Translation

那罗陀说道：为种种迷惑所制，你不断以自我所生之丝缕缠裹自身——如蚕以自身所出之丝结茧自缚。你如此自缠自缚，却仍不觉其然。

Word by Word

• {'saṃveṣṭyamānam': 'being wrapped/enveloped, being wound around', 'bahu-abhi-mohāt': 'due to great and repeated delusion

• from intense infatuation/confusion', 'tantubhiḥ': 'with threads

• strands (metaphor for bonds/attachments)', 'ātmajaiḥ': 'born of oneself

• self-generated (here: arising from one’s own actions/relations)', 'koṣakāraḥ': 'cocoon-maker

• silkworm', 'iva': 'like

• as', 'ātmānam': 'oneself

• the self', 'veṣṭayan': 'wrapping, winding around, enclosing', 'na avabudhyase': 'you do not understand/realize

Speaker

नारद उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Nārada
• koṣakāra (silkworm/cocoon-maker)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that bondage is largely self-created: through delusion (moha) one spins ‘threads’ of attachment—relationships, possessiveness, and identity-based ties—and becomes trapped in them, failing to recognize that the prison is of one’s own making.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instruction, Nārada admonishes the listener with a vivid metaphor: like a silkworm that produces threads from its own body and then gets enclosed by them, a person—confused by delusion—keeps tightening self-made bonds without realizing the process.