Shloka 21
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
अचक्षुविंषयं प्राप्तं कं धर्मोडनुगच्छति । मनुष्यका स्थूल शरीर तो मरकर यहीं पड़ा रह जाता है और उसका सूक्ष्म शरीर अव्यक्तभावको प्राप्त हो जाता है--नेत्रोंकी पहुँचसे परे है। ऐसी दशामें धर्म किस प्रकार उसका अनुसरण करता है? ।।
Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca: acakṣu-viṣayaṁ prāptaṁ kaṁ dharmo ’nugacchati? Manuṣyasya sthūla-śarīraṁ tu mṛtvā ihaiva patitaṁ tiṣṭhati, tasya sūkṣma-śarīram avyaktabhāvaṁ prāpya netrāṇāṁ gocaraṁ na bhavati. Etādṛśyāṁ daśāyāṁ dharmaḥ kathaṁ tam anugacchati? Bṛhaspatir uvāca: pṛthivī vāyur ākāśam āpo jyotir mano ’ntakaḥ.
Yudhiṣṭhira asked: “When a person has passed beyond the range of sight, whom does dharma follow? For the human being’s gross body, once dead, lies here; but the subtle body attains an unmanifest state and is no longer within the eye’s reach. In such a condition, how does dharma accompany him?” Bṛhaspati replied by beginning an account of the constituents and forces involved—earth, wind, space, water, light, mind, and the end-bringer (death)—to explain how moral consequence is not lost even when the person is unseen.
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
That ethical consequence (dharma/karma) is not limited by physical visibility: even when the gross body remains and the subtle body becomes unmanifest, dharma still ‘follows’ through the causal order governing the person’s subtle existence and destiny.
Yudhiṣṭhira presses a philosophical doubt about how dharma can accompany someone who is no longer perceptible after death. Bṛhaspati begins his reply by invoking the elemental and inner principles (earth, air, space, water, light, mind) and death, setting up an explanation of post-mortem continuity and moral accountability.