Shloka 3
Adhyāya 262: Śabda-brahman, Para-brahman, and the Ethics of Tyāga
Kapila–Syūmaraśmi Saṃvāda
ततो यज्ञ: प्रभवति नास्तिक्यमपि जल्पसि । न हि वर्तेदयं लोको वार्तामुत्सृज्य केवलाम्,उन्हींसे यज्ञकार्य सम्पन्न होता है। तुम तो नास्तिकताकी भी बातें करते हो। यदि पशुओंके कष्टका ख्याल करके खेती आदि वृत्तियोंका त्याग कर दिया जाय, तो इस संसारका जीवन ही समाप्त हो जायगा
tato yajñaḥ prabhavati nāstikyam api jalpasi | na hi varted ayaṃ loko vārtām utsṛjya kevalām ||
“From such livelihood and productive work, sacrifice and the sustaining rites of society arise. Yet you even speak in the language of disbelief. If, out of concern for the suffering of animals, one were to abandon agriculture and other necessary occupations altogether, then the life of this world could not continue.”
तुलाधार उवाच
Educational Q&A
Tulādhāra argues that society’s sustaining rites (yajña) depend on necessary livelihoods (vārttā). Ethical concern for harm must be balanced with the practical requirements that keep the world functioning; total abandonment of productive work would collapse social life.
In a dharma-discussion, Tulādhāra rebukes his interlocutor for speaking in a nāstika (denialist) manner and explains that if one rejects agriculture and other livelihoods due to concern for animal suffering, the world’s ordinary life and its sacrificial order would not continue.