Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 776
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
वर्षासु दीपदानेन तथैव च तिलोदकैः । “तपोधनो! नीले रंगके साँड़ छोड़ने, वर्षा-ऋतुमें दीप देने और अमावास्याको तिलमिश्रित जलद्वारा तर्पण करनेसे क्या लाभ होते हैं?”
varṣāsu dīpadānena tathaiva ca tilodakaiḥ |
Śakra asks the ascetic of great austerity about the spiritual and ethical fruits of three rainy-season observances: offering lamps during the monsoon, performing rites with sesame-mixed water (tilodaka), and releasing a blue-hued bull. The question frames these acts as forms of dharmic giving and ancestral/ritual duty, seeking to know what merit and welfare they are believed to produce.
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a dharmic concern: actions like lamp-offering and sesame-water rites are not merely ceremonial but are evaluated by their intended spiritual fruits—merit, purification, and fulfillment of duty (especially toward ancestors and the sacred order).
Śakra (Indra) addresses an austere sage and asks what benefits arise from specific monsoon-time practices—lamp donation and the use of tilodaka—seeking an authoritative explanation of their results.