Shloka 15
Adhyāya 122 — Śruta-vṛtta-yukta Brāhmaṇa and the Ethics of Dāna
Maitreya–Vyāsa Saṃvāda
गृहेषु स्वनिवासेषु सुखेषु शयनेषु च । वरार्हेषु महाभाग स्वपामि च सुपूजित:,महाभाग! श्रेष्ठ पुरुषोंमें रहने योग्य अपने निवासभूत सुन्दर महलोंके भीतर सुखद शय्याओंपर मैं बड़े सम्मानके साथ शयन करता हूँ
gṛheṣu svanivāseṣu sukheṣu śayaneṣu ca | varārheṣu mahābhāga svapāmi ca supūjitaḥ ||
Das Insekt sprach: „In Häusern — ja, in meinen eigenen Wohnstätten — auf behaglichen Lagern, ja selbst in Behausungen, die der Besten würdig sind, o Edler, schlafe ich geehrt und hochgeachtet.“
कीट उवाच
Educational Q&A
Comfort, honor, and ‘high’ living can be contingent and borrowed—arising from proximity to the powerful or protected spaces—so one should not build pride on external privilege; humility and discernment about the sources of one’s status are implied.
The insect speaks to a noble interlocutor, describing how it sleeps comfortably and with honor inside fine houses and dwellings, using its own experience to make a pointed observation about how even a small being can enjoy elite comforts when sheltered within the domains of the great.