Shloka 12
Sāma (Sāntva) and Dāna: The Brāhmaṇa’s Conciliatory Release from a Rākṣasa
अदन्नविद्वान् हन्त्यन्नमद्यमानं च हन्ति तम् । तं चान्न॑ पाति यश्चान्नं स हन्ता हन्यतेडबुध:
adann avidvān hanty annam adyamānaṃ ca hanti tam | taṃ cānnaṃ pāti yaś cānnaṃ sa hantā hanyate 'budhaḥ ||
Maitreya sprach: „Der Unwissende, dem die Einsicht fehlt, vernichtet die Speise, die er verzehrt; und diese Speise, so heißt es, vernichtet ihn wiederum. Wer aber die Speise schützt—indem er ein würdiger Empfänger ist und das Verdienst des Gebers bewahrt—wird von dieser Speise geschützt. Der Tor, der die Frucht der Gabe zunichtemacht, wird schließlich selbst getroffen.“
मैत्रेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Receiving food or charity without worthiness or gratitude is ethically destructive: it wastes the donor’s merit and harms the receiver. A worthy recipient ‘protects’ the gift by honoring it and enabling its intended spiritual fruit, and thus is himself protected.
Maitreya delivers a moral instruction within Anuśāsana Parva’s teachings on dharma, explaining the consequences of unworthy consumption of given food and praising the worthy recipient who preserves the giver’s merit.