Shloka 10
Adhyāya 122 — Śruta-vṛtta-yukta Brāhmaṇa and the Ethics of Dāna
Maitreya–Vyāsa Saṃvāda
तमृषिं द्रष्टमगमत् सर्वास्वन्यासु योनिषु । श्वाविद्वोधावराहाणां तथैव मृगपक्षिणाम्
tam ṛṣiṁ draṣṭum agamat sarvāsv anyāsu yoniṣu | śvāvid-uddhā-varāhāṇāṁ tathaiva mṛga-pakṣiṇām | śvapāka-śūdra-vaiśyānāṁ kṣatriyāṇāṁ ca yoniṣu |
Vyāsa said: After wandering through many other wombs and forms of birth—among porcupines, camels, boars, and likewise among deer and birds, and even among outcastes, Śūdras, Vaiśyas, and Kṣatriyas—he was at last born in a Kṣatriya family. Thereafter, having thus passed step by step through these births, and by the grace of the mighty and radiant Vyāsa, he went to see that sage.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores karmic causality and the long arc of rebirth: a being may traverse many forms of existence, and only after such experience—assisted by the grace of a realized guide like Vyāsa—attains a human birth conducive to seeking sages and higher dharma.
Vyāsa narrates that a person (previously moving through many animal and human social births) is finally born as a Kṣatriya; then, in that life, he goes to meet and behold a particular ṛṣi, implying a turning toward instruction, purification, or resolution of a prior account.