Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 40
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
अधर्मेण समायुक्तो यमस्य विषयं गत: । महद् दुःखं समासाद्य तिर्यग्योनौ प्रजायते,अधर्मपरायण मनुष्य यमलोकमें जाता है और वहाँ महान् दुःख भोगकर यहाँ पशु- पक्षियोंकी योनिमें जन्म लेता है
adharmeṇa samāyukto yamasya viṣayaṃ gataḥ | mahad duḥkhaṃ samāsādya tiryagyonau prajāyate ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “A person who is joined to unrighteousness (adharma) goes into Yama’s domain. After undergoing great suffering there, he is born again here in an animal or bird womb.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Adharma leads to painful consequences: the wrongdoer falls under Yama’s judgment, suffers in Yama’s realm, and then takes a lower rebirth (tiryag-yoni). The verse stresses moral causality—conduct shapes post-mortem experience and future birth.
In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction on dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira speaks about the fate of those devoted to adharma, describing a sequence of punishment in Yama’s domain followed by rebirth among animals/birds.