Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 5
ईश्वर उवाच । वृथा जन्मानि चत्वारि यानि तानि निबोध मे । कुपुत्राणां वृथा जन्म ये च धर्मबहिष्कृताः । प्रवासं ये च गच्छंति परदाररताः सदा
īśvara uvāca | vṛthā janmāni catvāri yāni tāni nibodha me | kuputrāṇāṃ vṛthā janma ye ca dharmabahiṣkṛtāḥ | pravāsaṃ ye ca gacchaṃti paradāraratāḥ sadā
Īśvara said: “Learn from me the four kinds of life that are wasted. The life of one who becomes a wicked son is wasted; so too the lives of those cast out from dharma. And those who depart into wandering, ever addicted to another’s wife—their lives also are wasted.”
Īśvara (Śiva)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devī
Scene: Śiva enumerates ‘wasted lives’: a moral tableau implied—an ungrateful/wayward son, a person expelled from dharma, and one consumed by adultery and restless wandering—contrasted with Śiva’s compassionate yet firm instruction to Devī.
FAQs
A life becomes ‘wasted’ when it departs from dharma—especially through moral fall, social harm, and sexual misconduct that violates righteousness.
The moral teaching is delivered within the Prabhāsakṣetra Māhātmya narrative setting.
No ritual is prescribed; it is an ethical classification warning against dharma-bahiṣkāra and para-dāra-rati.