Shloka 9
ब्रह्मस्वहरण-निषेधः — Prohibition of Appropriating Brahmin Property
Brahmasva
अहं तत्रावसं राजन ब्रह्मचारी जितेन्द्रिय: । तासां मे रजसा ध्वस्तं भैक्षमासीन्नराधिप,राजन! मैं भी उसी गाँवमें ब्रह्मचर्यपालनपूर्वक जितेन्द्रियभावसे निवास करता था। नरेश्वर! एक दिन उन्हीं गौओंके दूध एवं धूलके कणसे मेरा भिक्षात्र भी दूषित हो गया
ahaṁ tatrāvasaṁ rājan brahmacārī jitendriyaḥ | tāsāṁ me rajasā dhvastaṁ bhaikṣam āsīn narādhipa ||
Der Cāṇḍāla sagte: „O König, ich lebte dort als zölibatärer Schüler, die Sinne bezwungen. Doch, o Herr der Menschen, meine Almosenspeise wurde durch den Staub verunreinigt, den jene Kühe aufwirbelten.“
चाण्डाल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even sincere ascetic discipline (brahmacarya, sense-control) can be tested by external circumstances; the passage foregrounds the ethical tension between inner purity and socially/ritually defined notions of defilement.
A Caṇḍāla recounts to a king that he lived in the same place as a self-controlled brahmacārī, but on one occasion his begged food became contaminated by dust (associated with the cows), setting up a discussion about impurity and dharma.