Shloka 53
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
प्राक् श्वा भवति राजेन्द्र तत: क्रव्यात्तत: खर: । ततः प्रेत: परिक्लिष्ट: पश्चाज्जायति ब्राह्मण:
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | prāk śvā bhavati rājendra tataḥ kravyāttataḥ kharaḥ | tataḥ pretaḥ parikliṣṭaḥ paścāj jāyati brāhmaṇaḥ ||
যুধিষ্ঠিৰে ক’লে— হে ৰাজেন্দ্ৰ! প্ৰথমে সি কুকুৰ হয়; তাৰপাছত মাংসভোজী ৰাক্ষস; তাৰপাছত গাধা। তাৰপাছত মৃত্যু বৰণ কৰি ক্লেশপীড়িত প্ৰেত হৈ বহু দুখ ভোগ কৰি, শেষত ব্ৰাহ্মণ যোনিত জন্ম লয়।
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that disrespecting or harming one’s teacher (guru-aparādha) is a grave ethical violation with severe karmic consequences, leading to degrading births and suffering in the preta state before eventual return to human birth.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a king (likely Bhīṣma’s interlocutor contextually) and states a karmic sequence: a foolish disciple who offends his teacher is reborn successively as a dog, then a flesh-eating being, then a donkey; after death he suffers as a preta, and only afterward attains birth as a brāhmaṇa.