Shloka 13
Purohita-Niyoga and the Brahma–Kṣatra Concord
Aila–Kaśyapa Saṃvāda
नात्र पारं लभते पारगामी महागाधे नौरिव सम्प्रपन्ना । चातुर्वर्ण्य भवति हि सम्प्रमूढं प्रजास्तत: क्षयसंस्था भवन्ति,जैसे महान् एवं अगाध समुद्रमें टूटी हुई नौका पार नहीं पहुँच पाती, उसी प्रकार उस अवस्थामें मनुष्य अपनी जीवनयात्राको कुशलपूर्वक पूर्ण नहीं कर पाते हैं। चारों वर्णोकी प्रजापर मोह छा जाता है और वह नष्ट होने लगती है
kāśyapa uvāca |
nātra pāraṃ labhate pāragāmī mahāgādhe naur iva samprapannā |
cāturvarṇyaṃ bhavati hi sampramūḍhaṃ prajāḥ tataḥ kṣayasaṃsthā bhavanti ||
Kāśyapa said: “In such a condition, even one who is capable of crossing cannot reach the far shore—like a boat that has broken down in a vast and unfathomable sea. So too, people fail to carry their life’s journey to a safe and skillful completion. Delusion spreads over the communities of the four social orders, and from that confusion society declines toward ruin and dissolution.”
कश्यप उवाच
Educational Q&A
When collective delusion overtakes society, even capable individuals cannot successfully navigate life; confusion in the fourfold social order leads to systemic decline and eventual dissolution.
Kāśyapa uses a vivid metaphor—an unseaworthy boat in a deep ocean—to explain how, in a corrupted or confused social condition, people lose direction and society (including the cāturvarṇya framework) moves toward decay.