Shloka 31
प्रह्लादचरितम् (हिरण्यकशिपोः स्वर्गापहरणं, प्रह्लादस्य विष्णुभक्तिः, उपदेशः)
दुरात्मा वध्यताम् एष नानेनार्थो ऽस्ति जीवता स्वपक्षहानिकर्तृत्वाद् यः कुलाङ्गारतां गतः
durātmā vadhyatām eṣa nānenārtho 'sti jīvatā svapakṣahānikartṛtvād yaḥ kulāṅgāratāṃ gataḥ
Let this wicked-souled man be put to death—there is no purpose in his living. For by bringing ruin upon his own side, he has become a burning disgrace, a smoldering cinder upon the family line.
A royal/ministerial voice within the dynastic narrative (reported by Sage Parāśara to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Teaching: Historical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: One who destroys his own community and becomes a ‘kulāṅgāra’ (blot on the lineage) is judged unfit to live, reflecting the purāṇic ethic of loyalty and protection of one’s dharmic order.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Avoid actions that harm one’s own family/community for selfish ends; cultivate accountability and protect collective well-being.
Vishishtadvaita: Implied: adharma that injures the dharmic body (society as dependent on the Lord) is treated as spiritually ruinous and socially intolerable.
FAQs
It marks a person as an internal destroyer of the lineage—someone whose actions burn the family’s honor and stability from within, justifying severe royal punishment.
Through narrated courtly decisions where adharma—especially betrayal that harms one’s own people—is treated as a threat to social order, warranting daṇḍa to restore stability.
Kingship functions as an instrument of dharma; maintaining order against destructive adharma aligns with the Purāṇic vision of a cosmos ultimately upheld by Vishnu’s sovereign law.