Shloka 12
गोशकृन्माहात्म्य-प्रश्नः (On the Merit of Cow-Dung and the Abode of Śrī) / Inquiry into the Sanctity of Cow-Dung
अनाहिताग्नि: शतगुरयज्वा च सहस्रगुः । समृद्धों यश्व॒ कीनाशो नार्घ्यमर्हन्ति ते त्रयः
anāhitāgniḥ śatagurayajvā ca sahasraguḥ | samṛddho yaśva kīnāśo nārghyam arhanti te trayaḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Drei Arten von Menschen verdienen kein Arghya—keine ehrende Darbringung: (1) wer hundert Kühe besitzt und doch die heiligen Feuer nicht unterhält (das Agnihotra vernachlässigt), (2) wer tausend Kühe besitzt und dennoch keine Opfer vollzieht, und (3) wer wohlhabend ist und doch geizig bleibt.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Resources and prosperity are not, by themselves, grounds for respect. Honor is due to those who convert wealth into dharmic action—maintaining sacred duties (like agnihotra), supporting yajña, and practicing generosity. Neglect of ritual responsibility and refusal to give make a person unworthy of arghya.
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma, especially duties of householders and the ethics of wealth. Here he lists three types of wealthy men whose failure to perform rites or to give makes them undeserving of ceremonial honor.