Mahabharata 3.201.83 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 83
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
सायं प्रातश्न संध्यां यो ब्राह्मणो5भ्युपसेवते । प्रजपन् पावनीं देवीं गायत्रीं वेदमातरम्
sāyaṃ prātaś ca sandhyāṃ yo brāhmaṇo 'bhyupasevate | prajapan pāvanīṃ devīṃ gāyatrīṃ vedamātaram ||
যে ব্রাহ্মণ প্রাতে ও সায়ং—উভয় সন্ধ্যায় বিধিপূর্বক সন্ধ্যোপাসনা করে এবং বেদমাতা, পবিত্রকারিণী দেবী গায়ত্রীকে জপ করে, সে তাঁর কৃপায় পরম পবিত্র ও নিষ্পাপ হয়। সে যদি সমুদ্র-পর্যন্ত সমগ্র পৃথিবীও দানরূপে গ্রহণ করে, তবু কোনো বিপদে পতিত হয় না।
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Regular sandhyā observance and Gāyatrī-japa are presented as powerful disciplines that purify the practitioner and protect him from moral and worldly downfall; inner purity, sustained by daily practice and divine grace, outweighs even the risks associated with great wealth or gifts.
Yudhiṣṭhira is describing the religious ideal of a brāhmaṇa: one who performs dawn-and-dusk rites and recites the Gāyatrī. He emphasizes the resulting purity and safety, even in the extreme scenario of receiving the entire earth as a donation.
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