Shloka 73

Adhyaya 32: Saṃjaya’s Return, Audience with Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Ethical Admonition

Devanagari script

चत्वारि कर्माण्यभयंकराणि भयं प्रयच्छन्त्ययथाकृतानि । मानाग्निहोत्रमुत मानमौनं मानेनाधीतमुत मानयज्ञ:

Transliteration

catvāri karmāṇy abhayankarāṇi bhayaṁ prayacchanty ayathākṛtāni | mānāgnihotram uta mānamaunaṁ mānenādhītam uta mānayajñaḥ ||

Translation

Vidura says: There are four acts that, when rightly performed, are meant to make one fearless; yet if they are done improperly, they themselves produce fear and harm. These are: offering the Agnihotra with reverence, observing silence with reverence, studying sacred learning with reverence, and performing sacrifice with reverence.

Word by Word

• {'catvāri': 'four', 'karmāṇi': 'acts, practices, ritual duties', 'abhayankarāṇi': 'fear-dispelling, producing fearlessness', 'bhayam': 'fear, danger', 'prayacchanti': 'they give, they bring about', 'ayathākṛtāni': 'done wrongly, performed not according to rule/propriety', 'māna': 'honour, reverence, respectful regard', 'agnihotram': 'Agnihotra

• the fire-offering rite', 'maunam': 'silence

• vow of silence/restraint of speech', 'adhītam': 'what is studied/recited

• Vedic study, svādhyāya', 'yajñaḥ': 'sacrifice

• ritual worship/solemn offering', 'uta': 'and also, moreover'}

Speaker

विदुर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vidura
• Agnihotra
• Mauna
• Svadhyaya
• Yajna

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even sacred disciplines can become harmful if done without proper method and inner reverence. Vidura stresses that right attitude (māna—respectful regard) and correct performance (vidhi) are essential; otherwise rituals, silence, and study turn into sources of anxiety, hypocrisy, or social/ethical fault.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Vidura’s counsel during the Udyoga Parva, he offers ethical instruction to guide conduct amid rising conflict. Here he highlights how practices commonly praised as protective—Agnihotra, silence, study, and sacrifice—must be undertaken correctly and respectfully, or they backfire and generate fear and trouble.