Shloka 23
जपयोगयोः तुल्यफलनिर्णयः
Adhyāya 193: Adjudication of the Comparable Fruits of Japa and Yoga
अन्योन्यभक्षणासक्ता लोभमोहसमन्विता: । इहैव परिवर्तन्ते न ते यान्त्युत्तरां दिशम्
anyonyabhakṣaṇāsaktā lobhamohasamanvitāḥ | ihaiva parivartante na te yānty uttarāṃ diśam ||
Bharadvāja sprach: „Wer daran hängt, einander zu verschlingen, und von Gier und Verblendung erfüllt ist, der kreist nur hier im weltlichen Umlauf; er gelangt nicht in die höhere Richtung—auf den aufsteigenden Weg von Segen und Befreiung.“
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
Predatory conduct—living by harming others—when driven by greed (lobha) and delusion (moha), binds a person to repeated worldly wandering (saṃsāra) and blocks ascent to the ‘higher path’ (uttarā diś), i.e., higher states of being and ultimately liberation.
In a didactic passage of the Śānti Parva, Bharadvāja delivers a moral diagnosis: he characterizes certain beings/people as mutually destructive and mentally afflicted by greed and delusion, and he states the karmic consequence—continued cycling here rather than progress toward a higher destiny.