Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 45
Adhyāya 119: Vyāsa–Kīṭa-saṃvāda
Tapas-bala and karmic ascent across yoni
आहर्ता चानुमन्ता च विशस्ता क्रयविक्रयी । संस्कर्ता चोपभोक्ता च खादका: सर्व एव ते
āhartā cānumantā ca viśastā krayavikrayī | saṃskartā copabhoktā ca khādakāḥ sarva eva te ||
Bhīṣma said: “The one who brings an animal for slaughter, the one who gives consent, the one who kills, and the one who buys and sells it; likewise the one who prepares it and the one who consumes it—all of these are to be regarded as ‘eaters’ (participants in the act). In ethical terms, each shares the demerit arising from the taking of life for food.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral responsibility for violence is collective: procuring, permitting, killing, trading, cooking, and eating are all treated as participation in the same harmful act, so the ethical and karmic burden is shared.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on dharma, he explains the ethical chain behind animal slaughter for food, identifying every role in the process as complicit, not only the person who performs the killing.