Mahabharata 3.201.20 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 20
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
प्रतिग्रहश्च वै देय: शृणु यस्य युधिष्ठिर । प्रदातारं तथा55त्मानं यस्तारयति शक्तिमान्
pratigrahaś ca vai deyaḥ śṛṇu yasya yudhiṣṭhira | pradātāraṃ tathātmānaṃ yas tārayati śaktimān ||
Mārkaṇḍeya sprach: „Auch das Annehmen (einer Gabe) ist als Pflicht zu vollziehen—höre, o Yudhiṣṭhira, die Regel dafür. Man soll nur von einem fähigen Geber annehmen, der durch sein Geben die Kraft hat, sowohl den Empfänger als auch sich selbst zu erheben.“
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
That accepting gifts (pratigraha) is itself a dharmic act that must be regulated: one should accept only from a worthy and capable donor whose giving benefits both parties—bringing merit and uplift to the giver while supporting the recipient without moral compromise.
Mārkaṇḍeya continues instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma in the forest-exile context, shifting from the ethics of giving to the ethics of receiving—who may be accepted from and why that discernment matters.
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