Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 125
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
इस प्रकार यह श्राद्धके काल, क्रम, विधि, पात्र और फलका यथावतरूपसे वर्णन किया गया है ।। इति श्रीमहा भारते अनुशासनपर्वणि दानधर्मपर्वणि पितृरहस्यं नाम पज्चविंशत्यधिकशततमो<ध्याय:
śakra uvāca |
iti prakāraṁ idaṁ śrāddhasya kālaḥ kramaḥ vidhiḥ pātraṁ ca phalaṁ ca yathāvat-rūpeṇa varṇitaṁ | iti śrīmahābhārate anuśāsanaparvaṇi dānadharmaparvaṇi pitṛrahasyaṁ nāma pañcaviṁśatyadhikaśatatamo 'dhyāyaḥ |
Śakra said: “Thus, the proper account has been given of the śrāddha—its appropriate time, its sequence, its procedure, the worthy recipients, and the fruits it yields.” With this, in the Śrī Mahābhārata, in the Anuśāsana Parva, within the section on the dharma of gifts, concludes the chapter called “The Secret of the Ancestors,” the one hundred and twenty-fifth (with twenty-five beyond a hundred).
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Śrāddha should be performed correctly—at the proper time, in the proper sequence and method, offered to worthy recipients—because the ethical quality of the act (right procedure and right recipient) determines its fruit.
Indra (Śakra) closes his instruction by summarizing that the rules and results of śrāddha have been fully explained; the verse also functions as a colophon marking the end of the chapter titled “Pitṛrahasya” within the Anuśāsana Parva’s teachings on dāna-dharma.