Shloka 88
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
क्रौज्चो जीवति वर्ष तु ततो जायति चीरक: । ततो निधनमापन्नो मानुषत्वमुपाश्षुते,क्रौंच होकर वह एक वर्षतक जीवित रहता है। उसके बाद चीरक जातिका पक्षी होता है और फिर मरनेके बाद मनुष्य-योनिमें जन्म पाता है
krauṅco jīvati varṣaṁ tu tato jāyati cīrakaḥ | tato nidhanam āpanno mānuṣatvam upāśnute ||
Yudhiṣṭhira sprach: „Ein krauñca-Vogel lebt ein Jahr; danach wird er als Vogel der Art cīraka geboren. Dann, nach dem Tod, erlangt er den Menschenstand und wird als Mensch wiedergeboren.“
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates saṁsāra (transmigration): beings move through different births, and even an animal birth can, after death, culminate in human birth. It implies an ethical universe governed by karma, where life-forms and their destinies are not random but part of a moral-causal progression.
Yudhiṣṭhira is speaking within a didactic discussion in the Anuśāsana Parva, presenting an example of successive births: a krauñca lives for a year, is reborn as a cīraka bird, and after dying attains human birth—used to explain patterns of rebirth and the workings of karmic consequence.