यम उवाच तपःशौचवता नित्यं सत्यधर्मरतेन च | मातापित्रोरहरह: पूजनं कार्यमज्जसा
yama uvāca tapaḥ-śaucavatā nityaṁ satya-dharma-ratena ca | mātā-pitror ahar-ahaḥ pūjanaṁ kāryam ajjasā ||
Yama said: “A person should constantly practice austerity and maintain purity, and remain devoted to the dharma of truthfulness. While doing all this, he must, without delay, perform daily service and worship of his mother and father.”
यम उवाच
True dharma is not only personal discipline (tapas) and inner–outer purity (śauca) with steadfast truthfulness (satya), but also the concrete daily duty of honoring and serving one’s parents.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on righteous conduct, Yama speaks as an authority on moral law, prescribing a practical code: cultivate austerity, purity, and truth, and alongside these virtues perform daily reverence toward one’s mother and father.