Shloka 36
अव्यक्तकालमान-निर्णयः
Measures of Time from the Unmanifest; Creation, Elements, and the Primacy of Mind
शिक्षोदरे ये निरता: सदैव स्तेना नरा वाक्परुषाश्च नित्यम् । अपेतदोषानपि तान् विदित्वा दूराद् देवा: सम्परिवर्जयन्ति
śikṣodare ye niratāḥ sadaiva stenā narā vākparuṣāś ca nityam | apetadoṣān api tān viditvā dūrād devāḥ samparivarjayanti ||
Those men who are always absorbed in the discipline of the belly—ever intent on mere sustenance and sense-indulgence—who are thieves and habitually harsh of speech: even if they have been freed from the formal taint of those acts (through expiation and the like), the gods, recognizing their true nature, still keep away from them and reject them from afar.
हंस उवाच
Educational Q&A
Expiation may remove the formal ‘fault’ of an act, but if a person’s character remains dominated by appetite, theft, and harsh speech, the divine (and the wise) still recognize that disposition and avoid such a person; inner transformation matters more than mere ritual clearance.
Haṃsa is instructing about moral discernment: he describes a type of person—ruled by the belly and senses, prone to stealing and cruel speech—and states that even after such people undergo prāyaścitta (atonement), the gods, knowing their true nature, keep their distance.