Shloka 13
Prāyaścitta and Contextual Non-Culpability (प्रायश्चित्त-निमित्त-अदोषवाद)
जो दूध देनेवाली पचीस हजार कपिला गौओंका दान करता है, वह समस्त पापोंसे छुटकारा पा जाता है ।।
vyāsa uvāca | yo dugdha-denīḥ pañca-viṃśati-sahasraṃ kapilā gāvo dānaṃ karoti sa sarva-pāpebhyaḥ pramucyate || go-sahasraṃ sa-vatsānāṃ dogdhrīṇāṃ prāṇa-saṃśaye | sādhubhyo vai daridrebhyo dattvā mucyeta kilbiṣāt || yadā mṛtyu-kālaḥ sannihitaḥ syāt tadā sadācāri-daridra-brāhmaṇebhyo dugdha-denīḥ eka-sahasraṃ sa-vatsā gāvo dattvāpi manuṣyaḥ sarva-pāpebhyaḥ mucyate ||
Vyāsa sprach: Wer fünfundzwanzigtausend kapilā—fahlbraune, milchgebende Kühe—als Gabe spendet, wird von allen Sünden frei. Ja, wenn das Leben in Gefahr ist und der Tod herannaht, kann ein Mensch von Verfehlungen erlöst werden, indem er tausend milchgebende Kühe samt Kälbern den Tugendhaften und Bedürftigen schenkt, besonders armen, wohlgeführten Brāhmaṇas.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Generous giving—especially of life-sustaining gifts like milk-giving cows to worthy and needy recipients—functions as a strong form of moral purification (prāyaścitta), capable of relieving one from accumulated wrongdoing, even at the approach of death.
Vyāsa states a dharma-teaching within Śānti Parva: he describes the merit and expiatory power of go-dāna, specifying large-scale gifts (25,000 kapilā cows) and, in a death-near situation, the gift of 1,000 cows with calves to virtuous poor people, particularly poor brāhmaṇas.