Mahabharata 3.201.121 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 121
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
शृणु दानरहस्यानि श्रुतिस्मृत्युदितानि च । छायायां करिण: श्राद्ध तत् कर्णपरिवीजिते । दश कल्पायुतानीह न क्षीयेत युधिछ्िर
śṛṇu dānarahasyāni śrutismṛtyuditāni ca | chāyāyāṃ kariṇaḥ śrāddhaṃ tat karṇaparivījite | daśa kalpāyutānīha na kṣīyeta yudhiṣṭhira ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “Listen, O Yudhiṣṭhira, to the subtle principles of giving as taught in Śruti and Smṛti. A śrāddha performed in the shade of an elephant—where a gentle fanning like the movement of its ears is felt—does not lose its merit here for ten thousand kalpa-units.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
That charity and ancestral rites gain enduring merit when performed in accordance with Śruti–Smṛti principles, and that the place/conditions of a rite (here, a cooling, sanctifying shade likened to an elephant’s) are taught as amplifiers of puṇya.
Sage Mārkaṇḍeya instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on ‘secrets of giving’ and the efficacy of śrāddha, describing a specific auspicious setting whose performance yields long-lasting, undiminishing spiritual fruit.
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