Shloka 34
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
न देवा: प्रतिगृह्नन्ति पितरो ब्राह्मणास्तथा | तेषां प्रणष्टरर्माणां वाहीकानामिति श्रुति:,“जिनके धर्म-कर्म नष्ट हो गये हैं, वे संस्कारहीन, जारज बाहीक यज्ञ-कर्मसे रहित होते हैं। उनके दिये हुए द्रव्यको देवता, पितर और ब्राह्मण भी नहीं ग्रहण करते हैं, यह बात सुननेमें आयी है”
na devāḥ pratigṛhṇanti pitaro brāhmaṇās tathā | teṣāṁ praṇaṣṭa-karmāṇāṁ vāhīkānām iti śrutiḥ ||
Karna said: “It is heard in sacred tradition that even the gods, the ancestors, and the Brahmins do not accept offerings from those Vāhīkas whose righteous rites and duties have perished.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Offerings and gifts are not validated by material value alone; they require the moral and ritual integrity of the giver. When one’s dharma and proper rites are ruined, even divine and sacred recipients are said to reject such gifts.
In the midst of the war-era exchange, Karna employs a traditional maxim to denigrate a group labeled “Vāhīkas,” asserting that their degraded conduct makes their offerings unacceptable even to gods, ancestors, and Brahmins—using religious authority as a rhetorical weapon.