Shloka 55
Adhyāya 208: Aṅgirasī-kanyāḥ
Enumeration of Aṅgiras’ daughters and attribute-names
चिकीर्षेदेव कल्याणं श्रद्धधानोडनसूयक: । वसनस्येव छिद्राणि साधूनां विवृणोति यः,(अपश्यन्नात्मनो दोषान् स पाप: प्रेत्य नश्यति ।।) श्रद्धालु मनुष्य दूसरोंके दोष देखना छोड़कर सदा सबके हितकी ही इच्छा करे। जो पापी अपने दोषोंकी ओरसे आँखें बंद करके सदा दूसरे श्रेष्ठ पुरुषोंके दोषोंको ही कपड़ेके छेदोंकी भाँति अधिकाधिक प्रकट करता और बढ़ाता है, वह मृत्युके पश्चात् नष्ट हो जाता है --परलोकमें उसे कोई सुख नहीं मिलता है
cikīrṣed eva kalyāṇaṃ śraddadhāno 'n asūyakaḥ | vasanasy eva chidraṇi sādhūnāṃ vivṛṇoti yaḥ (apaśyann ātmano doṣān sa pāpaḥ pretya naśyati ||)
The hunter said: “Let a person, full of faith and free from malice, seek only what is good and beneficial. But one who, like pointing out holes in a garment, keeps exposing and enlarging the faults of virtuous people—while failing to see his own faults—such a sinful man perishes after death; in the next world he finds no happiness.”
व्याध उवाच
Educational Q&A
Cultivate faith and goodwill, and prioritize welfare (kalyāṇa). Do not habitually expose and magnify the faults of virtuous people while ignoring your own defects; such fault-finding rooted in malice leads to moral ruin and unhappy consequences after death.
In the Vyādha’s instruction (the hunter-teacher episode in Vana Parva), he admonishes the listener about ethical conduct: a sincere person should seek the good of all, whereas a person who obsessively publicizes others’ shortcomings—like highlighting holes in cloth—while remaining blind to his own faults, meets destruction after death.