Shloka 5
दानशील-समाचारः, सत्कारः, अहिंसा च
Umā–Maheśvara Saṃvāda
इदं चैवापरं गुह्ुमप्रशस्तं निबोधत । अग्नेस्तु वृषलो नेता हविर्मूढाश्व योषित:
idaṃ caivāparaṃ guhyaṃ apraśastaṃ nibodhata | agnestu vṛṣalo netā havirmūḍhāśva yoṣitaḥ ||
Dhaumya said: Now understand another confidential point—one not commendable, indeed blameworthy. If a Śūdra becomes the carrier of a twice-born man’s sacred agnihotra fire, moving it from place to place, and if ignorant women carry the havis meant for sacrifice, then whoever deems such conduct to be “dharma” is stained by adharma. The sacred fires grow wrathful toward him, and he is said to be reborn in a Śūdra womb.
धौग्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that certain ritual roles—specifically transporting the sacred sacrificial fire and carrying the oblation—are considered improper when performed by those deemed ritually unqualified in this normative framework. Treating such impropriety as ‘dharma’ is said to lead to adharma and adverse karmic consequences, symbolized by the anger of the sacred fires and an inferior rebirth.
Dhaugya continues an instruction on dharma by introducing a ‘secret’ but negative example (apraśasta). He lists actions regarded as blameworthy in sacrificial procedure—having a Śūdra transport the ritual fire and having ignorant women carry the havis—and states the moral-ritual consequence for endorsing such acts as righteous.