Text:
स होवाच पितरं तत कस्मै मां दास्यसीति ।
द्वितीयं तृतीयं तँ होवाच मृत्यवे त्वा ददामीति ॥ 4॥sa hovāca pitaraṃ tata kasmai māṃ dāsyasīti ।
dvitīyaṃ tṛtīyaṃ tam̐ hovāca mṛtyave tvā dadāmīti ॥ 4॥4. He said unto his sire, ‘father, to whom wilt thou give me’; he said this again and for the third time. To him, he said ‘unto Death do I give thee.’
Shankara’s Commentary:
Thinking that, as being the duty of a good son, he should ward off the undesirable consequences, which might befall his father on account of the imperfection in the sacrifice, by even giving himself away and thus perfect the sacrifice, he approached his father and said to him, ‘father, to whom, i.e., to which of the Ritviks will you give me as Dakshina, i.e., reward? though unheeded by his father thus addressed, he repeated the question a second time and a third time ‘to whom will you give me,’ ‘to whom will you give me?’ The father incensed at the thought that that was not like a boy said to the son ‘to Death do I give thee.’