Shloka 16
Prāyaścitta-vidhāna: Tapas, Dāna, Vrata, and Proportional Expiation (प्रायश्चित्तविधानम्)
क्रोधमोहकृते चैव दृष्टान्तागमहेतुभि: । शरीराणामुपक्लेशो मनसभ् प्रियाप्रिये । तदौषधैश्न मन्नत्रैश्न प्रायक्षित्तैज्ष शाम्यति
krodha-moha-kṛte caiva dṛṣṭāntāgama-hetubhiḥ | śarīrāṇām upakleśo manasaḥ priyāpriye | tad-auṣadhaiś ca mantraiś ca prāyaścittaiś ca śāmyati ||
Vyāsa said: When, under the sway of anger and delusion, a person’s mind is driven toward what seems pleasant or unpleasant and thereby falls into inauspicious deeds, the scriptures—by reasoning, illustration, and authoritative teaching—commend bodily austerity such as fasting as a fitting expiation. Yet the pacification of that fault is also achieved through remedial disciplines: prescribed foods, mantra-recitation, and other forms of atonement, by which the sin committed from anger and the like is brought to rest.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Sins arising from anger and delusion are to be pacified through disciplined expiation: bodily austerity (such as fasting) endorsed by scriptural reasoning and examples, along with other remedies like prescribed observances, mantra-recitation, and additional prāyaścittas.
In the didactic discourse of Śānti Parva, Vyāsa explains how wrongful acts driven by the mind’s likes and dislikes—when fueled by anger and delusion—should be addressed, outlining scripturally grounded methods of atonement and inner pacification.