Shloka 37
Adhyaya 3 — The Dharmapakshis’ Past-Life Curse and Indra’s Test of Truthfulness
ऋषिरुवाच मामेष शरणं प्राप्तो विहगः क्षुत्तृषान्वितः ।
युष्मन्मांसॆन येनास्य क्षणं तृप्तिर्भवेत् वै ॥
ṛṣir uvāca māmeṣa śaraṇaṃ prāpto vihagaḥ kṣuttṛṣānvitaḥ / yuṣmanmāṃsena yenāsya kṣaṇaṃ tṛptir bhaveta vai
The Ṛṣi said: “This bird has come to me for refuge, afflicted by hunger and thirst. By your flesh, it could indeed gain satisfaction for a moment.”
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FAQs
The verse frames a dharmic tension: a refuge-seeking creature (śaraṇāgata) deserves protection, yet its immediate survival is imagined as requiring harm to others. The ethical lesson typically explored in such episodes is that true dharma tests compassion, non-violence, and responsibility—protection must be upheld without casual justification of injury to others.
This verse is not primarily sarga/pratisarga/manvantara/vaṃśa/vaṃśānucarita content. It functions as upākhyāna-based dharma-śikṣā (instruction through narrative), which is commonly embedded around the pancalakṣaṇa material rather than being one of the five itself.
Symbolically, the “bird” can represent the vulnerable jīva driven by kṣut and tṛṣā (hunger/thirst—craving and lack). The suggestion of “your flesh” evokes the temptation to solve suffering through sacrificial harm. Esoterically, the teaching points toward a higher resolution: relieve craving and suffering through dharmic means, not by transferring pain onto another being.