Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 53, Shloka 37
Adhyaya 53 — Rudrasarga and the Measure of the Manvantaras: Svayambhuva Manu, Priyavrata’s Line, and the Seven Dvipas
विपर्ययो न तेष्वस्ति जरा मृत्युभयं न च ।
धर्माधर्मौ न तेष्वास्तां नोत्तमाधममध्यमाः ॥
viparyayo na teṣv asti jarā-mṛtyu-bhayaṃ na ca /
dharmādharmau na teṣv āstāṃ nottamādhamamadhyamāḥ
Among them there is no reversal or decline; there is neither old age nor fear of death. For them there is neither dharma nor adharma, and there are no grades of superior, inferior, or middling.
FAQs
The verse distinguishes between karma-governed realms (where dharma/adharma operate) and perfected/pleasure realms where such dualities are not salient; it does not cancel ethics for humans but situates ethics within mortality and consequence.
‘Sthāna’—describing the conditions of beings in different cosmic regions.
Absence of ‘dharma/adharma’ and social ranking can symbolize a non-dual state beyond comparative identity; old age and death represent time-bound egoic limitation, here portrayed as transcended.