Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 10, Shloka 55
Adhyaya 10 — Jaimini’s Questions on Birth, Death, Karma, and the Embodied Journey
अवारिदायिनो दाहं क्षुधाञ्चानन्नदायिनः ।
प्राप्नुवन्ति नराः काले तस्मिन् मृत्यावुपस्थिते ॥
avāridāyino dāhaṃ kṣudhāṃ cānannadāyinaḥ / prāpnuvanti narāḥ kāle tasmin mṛtyāv upasthite
Those who did not give water suffer burning thirst, and those who did not give food suffer hunger, when that time comes—when death has arrived.
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FAQs
Basic compassion—offering water and food—is treated as foundational dharma. Neglecting it rebounds as matching deprivation at death, when one is most vulnerable.
Ancillary dharma instruction.
Water and food symbolize the two primary supports of embodied life; refusal to sustain others hardens the psyche, producing corresponding inner ‘dryness’ and ‘lack’ at the final threshold.