Mahabharata 3.201.83 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 83
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
सायं प्रातश्न संध्यां यो ब्राह्मणो5भ्युपसेवते । प्रजपन् पावनीं देवीं गायत्रीं वेदमातरम्
sāyaṃ prātaś ca sandhyāṃ yo brāhmaṇo 'bhyupasevate | prajapan pāvanīṃ devīṃ gāyatrīṃ vedamātaram ||
Yudhiṣṭhira sprach: „Der Brāhmaṇa, der in Treue die Dämmerungsriten bei Morgengrauen und Abenddämmerung vollzieht und die reinigende Göttin Gāyatrī—die Mutter der Veden—rezitiert, wird durch ihre Gnade höchst rein und frei von Sünde. Selbst wenn er als Gabe die ganze Erde bis zum umschließenden Ozean annähme, geriete er doch nicht in Gefahr.“
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Regular sandhyā observance and Gāyatrī-japa are presented as powerful disciplines that purify the practitioner and protect him from moral and worldly downfall; inner purity, sustained by daily practice and divine grace, outweighs even the risks associated with great wealth or gifts.
Yudhiṣṭhira is describing the religious ideal of a brāhmaṇa: one who performs dawn-and-dusk rites and recites the Gāyatrī. He emphasizes the resulting purity and safety, even in the extreme scenario of receiving the entire earth as a donation.
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