Shloka 37
Āloka-dāna (Dīpa-dāna), Sumanas–Dhūpa–Dīpa Phala: Manu–Suvarṇa and Śukra–Bali Exempla
प्रीता: प्रीणन्ति सततं मानिता मानयन्ति च । अवज्ञातावधूताश्न निर्दहन्त्यधमान् नरान्
prītāḥ prīṇanti satataṃ mānitā mānayanti ca | avajñātā avadhūtāś ca nirdahanty adhamān narān ||
Śukra said: “When the deities are pleased, they continually bestow satisfaction; when they are honored, they in turn confer honor. But when they are slighted and treated with contempt, they burn down ignoble men who act in disrespect, consuming them with the fire of their wrath.”
शुक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Honor and reverence toward the divine (and by extension toward worthy beings) bring protection and well-being, while contempt and neglect invite destructive consequences; the verse frames this as a moral law of reciprocity.
Śukra is instructing about proper conduct: he contrasts the benefits that arise when deities are pleased and respected with the ruin that follows when they are insulted or scorned.