Shloka 155
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
हाहावाक्यं प्रमुञ्चन्ती त्रायस्वेत्यसकृत्स्वना ।
अथापश्यत् पुनस्तत्र धर्मराजस्य शासनात् ॥
hāhāvākyaṃ pramuñcantī trāyasvety asakṛt-svanā | athāpaśyat punas tatra dharmarājasya śāsanāt ||
Crying out ‘Alas, alas!’ and repeatedly calling, ‘Save me!’, she wailed. Then he saw again there—(all this) occurring by the command of Dharmarāja (Yama).
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FAQs
The verse foregrounds a core purāṇic ethic: suffering is not random but administered within a moral order (ṛta/dharma) personified by Yama. The repeated plea ‘save me’ highlights the human impulse to seek refuge, yet the narrative stresses that refuge must be sought through dharma before consequences mature.
Carita (didactic narrative) illustrating dharma’s enforcement through Yama; not a cosmological (sarga/pratisarga) passage.
‘Dharmarāja’s command’ symbolizes the inviolability of moral causation: even gods or heavens do not override the inner law. The cry functions as the jīva’s agitation when confronted with its own karmic record.