Shloka 66
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
क्षीर॑ तु बालवत्सानां ये पिबन्तीह मानवा:
kṣīraṃ tu bāla-vatsānāṃ ye pibantīha mānavāḥ | teṣāṃ vaṃśe kṣīra-pāyinaḥ kula-vṛddhi-karāś ca bālakā na jāyante | teṣāṃ santāno naśyati tathā teṣāṃ kula-vaṃśa-kṣayo bhavati ||
Śakra sprach: „Die Menschen in dieser Welt, die Milch trinken, die man Kühen entnimmt, deren Kälber noch sehr jung sind, zeugen in ihrer Linie keine Kinder, die Milch trinken und das Haus mehren. Ihre Nachkommenschaft geht zugrunde, und so verfallen Sippe und Geschlecht.“
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that exploiting a cow’s milk when her calf is still very young is an unethical act with grave karmic and social consequences, symbolized as loss of progeny and decline of one’s family line.
Indra (Śakra) is delivering a moral warning: certain harmful household practices—here, depriving a young calf by taking and consuming its mother’s milk—invite misfortune, especially the destruction of offspring and the weakening of one’s clan.