Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 29, Shloka 12
Adhyaya 29 — Alarka’s Inquiry and Madalasa’s Teaching on Householder Dharma (Gārhasthya), Vaiśvadeva, and Atithi Hospitality
तेषामुच्छेदकर्ता च यो नरोऽत्यन्तपापकृत् ।
स तमस्यान्धतामिस्त्रे तामिस्त्रे च निमज्जति ॥
teṣām ucchedakartā ca yo naro ’tyantapāpakṛt | sa tamasy āndhatāmistre tāmistre ca nimajjati ||
“But the man who cuts off what is due to them—their sustenance and rites—one who commits exceedingly sinful acts, sinks into ‘darkness’, into blind-darkness, and into utter darkness, terrible hellish states.”
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FAQs
Withholding what sustains others—whether offerings, hospitality, or due rites—is treated as a grave ethical rupture with severe karmic consequence.
Dharma (ācāra) and karmaphala instruction; a moral-legal passage rather than cosmogenesis or dynastic history.
‘Darkness’ signifies not only punitive realms but the inward contraction of consciousness caused by severing reciprocity—spiritual obscuration mirroring ethical failure.