Shloka 109
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
छुच्छुन्दरित्वमाप्रोति राजल्लाॉभपरायण: । तत्र जीवति वर्षाणि ततो दश च पठच च
chucchundaritvam āpnoti rājan lobhaparāyaṇaḥ | tatra jīvati varṣāṇi tato daśa ca pañca ca ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “O King, a man who is driven by greed attains the state of a shrew. In that womb he lives for fifteen years.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Greed (lobha) that drives unethical acts like theft leads to moral degradation and karmic retribution, symbolized here by rebirth as a low creature and a fixed span of suffering in that state.
In a didactic exchange within Anuśāsana Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira states a specific karmic result: a greed-driven wrongdoer is reborn as a chucchundarī (shrew) and lives fifteen years in that womb/species.