Shloka 19

Prāyaścitta-vidhāna: Tapas, Dāna, Vrata, and Proportional Expiation (प्रायश्चित्तविधानम्)

Devanagari script

जातिश्रेण्यधिवासानां कुलधर्माश्चव सर्वतः । वर्जयन्ति च ये धर्म तेषां धर्मो न विद्यते,'परंतु जो पुरुष अपनी जाति, आश्रम तथा कुलके धर्मोंका सर्वथा परित्याग कर देते हैं और जो लोग धर्ममात्रको छोड़ बैठते हैं उनके लिये कोई धर्म (प्रायश्चित्त) नहीं है। अर्थात्‌ किसी भी प्रायश्चित्तसे उनकी शुद्धि नहीं हो सकती है

Transliteration

jātiśreṇyadhivāsānāṁ kuladharmāś caiva sarvataḥ | varjayanti ca ye dharma teṣāṁ dharmo na vidyate ||

Translation

ব্যাসে ক’লে—যিসকলে নিজৰ জাতি, আশ্ৰম/অৱস্থা, জীৱনপদ্ধতি আৰু কুল-পৰম্পৰাৰ কৰ্তব্যসমূহ সম্পূৰ্ণৰূপে ত্যাগ কৰে, আৰু ধৰ্মকেই ত্যাগ কৰি বহে—তেওঁলোকৰ বাবে ধৰ্ম নাই। কিয়নো নৈতিক শৃঙ্খলাৰ আধাৰটোকেই তেওঁলোকে অস্বীকাৰ কৰিছে; সেয়ে কোনো প্ৰায়শ্চিত্তেও তেওঁলোকৰ শুদ্ধি সত্যৰূপে সম্ভৱ নহয়।

Word by Word

{'jāti''birth-group

caste/community by birth', 'śreṇī''guild

class or corporate social grouping', 'adhivāsa''dwelling

settled way of life (contextuallyone’s established station)', 'kuladharma': 'family duty

ancestral code of conduct', 'sarvataḥ''entirely

in every respect', 'varjayanti''they abandon

they exclude', 'dharma''duty

sustaining order', 'teṣām''for them

of those people', 'na vidyate''does not exist

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vyāsa

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

If a person rejects the foundational duties tied to social identity (jāti/śreṇī), life-situation (adhivāsa), and family tradition (kuladharma), and even abandons dharma as a principle, then there remains no moral framework through which expiation can operate; reform presupposes acceptance of dharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on righteous conduct, Vyāsa states a strict ethical principle: deliberate abandonment of one’s rightful duties and of dharma itself places a person outside the remedial scope of prāyaścitta (expiation), because the person has renounced the very authority that makes correction meaningful.