Shloka 41
Adhyaya 1 — Jaimini’s Questions on the Mahabharata and the Origin of the Wise Birds
मार्कण्डेय उवाच तस्य तद्वचनं श्रुत्वा सर्वा वेपत कन्धराः ।
अशक्यमेतदस्माकमिति ताश्चक्रिरे कथाः ॥
mārkaṇḍeya uvāca tasya tadvacanaṃ śrutvā sarvā vepatakandharāḥ | aśakyam etad asmākam iti tāś cakrire kathāḥ ||
马尔坎ḍ耶说道：听到他的话，众人都因恐惧而颈项战栗，开始说道：“这对我们是不可能的。”
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FAQs
The verse highlights a common ethical moment in Purāṇic narratives: when confronted with a daunting demand or truth, ordinary agents recoil and declare incapacity. It sets up the need for higher counsel, dharmic resolve, or divine assistance, depending on the subsequent narrative turn.
This verse functions primarily as a narrative frame-device rather than a direct Pancalakṣaṇa unit. It supports the Purāṇa’s ‘vaṃśānucarita’/itihāsa-style storytelling infrastructure (contextual narration) that often precedes sections on sarga, pratisarga, manvantara, and vaṃśa.
Trembling ‘at the neck’ symbolizes the disturbance of prāṇa and resolve at the gateway between thought and speech—fear constricts expression. The declaration ‘impossible for us’ marks the ego’s limit, a threshold that narratives often use to pivot toward surrender, guidance, or the emergence of a more capacious (daivī/dharmic) agency.