Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 1063
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
क्षौमं च वस्त्रमादाय शशो जन्तु: प्रजायते । सूती वस्त्रकी चोरी करके मरा हुआ मनुष्य क्रौंच पक्षीकी योनिमें जन्म लेता है। भारत! पाटम्बर
kṣaumaṃ ca vastram ādāya śaśo jantuḥ prajāyate |
قال يودهيشثيرا: «من يأخذ (يسرق) ثوبًا من kṣauma يُبعث من جديد ككائنٍ شبيهٍ بالأرنب.» وتؤكد هذه الآية المبدأ الأخلاقي القائل إن السرقة—ولا سيما سرقة ما هو ضروري كملابس الناس—تجرّ عواقب كَرْمية، صُوِّرت هنا في صورة ولادةٍ جديدةٍ مُهينة.
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The core teaching is that theft (especially of necessities like clothing) violates dharma and results in karmic retribution, here symbolized by rebirth into a lower animal form (hare).
Within Anuśāsana Parva’s dharma-instructions, Yudhiṣṭhira states a specific karmic consequence: stealing a kṣauma garment leads to rebirth as a hare-like creature, illustrating moral causality through concrete examples.