Shloka 38
अध्याय १२८: शिव–उमा संवादः — तिलोत्तमा, श्मशान-मेध्यता, तथा चातुर्वर्ण्य-धर्मः
Chapter 128: Śiva–Umā Dialogue—Tilottamā, the Ritual Valence of the Śmaśāna, and the Fourfold Duty-Code
श्रोत्रियांश्व विकर्मस्थान् प्राज्ञांक्षाप्पजितेन्द्रियान् । मन्येडनुध्यायसि जनांस्तेनासि हरिण: कृश:
śrotriyāṁś ca vikarmasthān prājñān kṣāntān jitendriyān | manye ’nudhyāyasi janāṁs tenāsi hariṇaḥ kṛśaḥ ||
The Brahmin said: “I think you keep pondering over people who are learned in the Veda, yet entangled in wrongful conduct—though wise, patient, and self-controlled. Because your mind dwells on them, you have grown thin like a deer.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vedic learning and personal virtues (wisdom, patience, self-control) are undermined if one lives in vikarma—conduct opposed to dharma. The verse highlights the ethical tension of seeing respected, learned people act wrongly, and warns that obsessive brooding over others’ faults can consume one’s own peace and vitality.
A Brahmin addresses someone who has become emaciated, inferring that the person’s distress comes from repeatedly thinking about certain Veda-learned individuals who, despite their virtues, are engaged in improper actions. The speaker diagnoses mental preoccupation with others’ moral lapses as the cause of the listener’s wasting away.