भृगु–भरद्वाजसंवादः: वर्णभेदस्य कर्माधारितव्याख्या
Bhrigu–Bharadvaja Dialogue: A Karma-Based Account of Varṇa
नक्षत्रेष्वासुरेष्वन्ये दुस्तिथौ दुर्मुहूर्तजा: । सम्पतन्त्यासुरीं योनिं यज्ञप्रसववर्जिता:,“दूसरे जो लोग आसुर नक्षत्र, दूषित तिथि तथा अशुभ मुहूर्तमें उत्पन्न होते हैं, वे यज्ञ तथा संतानसे रहित होकर आसुरी योनिमें पड़ते हैं
nakṣatreṣv āsureṣv anye dustithau durmuhūrtajāḥ | sampatanty āsurīṃ yoniṃ yajñaprasavavarjitāḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: Andere, die unter dämonischen Sternbildern, an befleckten tithis und zu unheilvollen Augenblicken geboren werden—des yajña (Opferlebens und heiligen Pflichtmaßes) und der Nachkommenschaft beraubt—fallen in dämonische Daseinsweisen.
भीष्म उवाच
The verse links one’s decline into asuric states with a life cut off from yajña (sacred duty/ritual order) and from responsible continuity through progeny; it frames misfortune not merely as timing but as a moral-ritual deprivation that leads to darker outcomes.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction during the Śānti Parva, he describes categories of people associated with inauspicious cosmic timings and states that, lacking yajña and progeny, they descend into asuric births—part of a broader discourse on conduct, causality, and the foundations of social and spiritual order.