Shloka 10
सोमचक्रः, ग्रह-रथाः, ध्रुवबन्धनं, शिशुमारसंनिवेशः, विष्णु-सर्वात्मकता
Moon, Planets, Dhruva-Tethering, Śiśumāra, and Vishnu as All
छिनत्ति वीरुधो यस् तु वीरुत्संस्थे निशाकरे पत्रं वा पातयत्य् एकं ब्रह्महत्यां स विन्दति
chinatti vīrudho yas tu vīrutsaṃsthe niśākare patraṃ vā pātayaty ekaṃ brahmahatyāṃ sa vindati
Whoever cuts creeping plants—or causes even a single leaf to fall—when the Moon is stationed amid the vegetation, incurs the grave sin of brahmahatyā, guilt equal to slaying a brāhmaṇa.
Sage Parāśara (in instruction to Maitreya)
Concept: Because the moon is ritually present in vegetation at a specific time, harming plants then is treated as an extreme violation (brahmahatyā-equivalent), stressing sacred non-injury.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Adopt ahiṃsā toward plant life—avoid needless cutting, practice mindful consumption, and honor ritual calendars that cultivate restraint.
Vishishtadvaita: Dharma extends to all embodied life within the Lord’s body (śarīra-śarīrī-bhāva), so injury to living nature is spiritually weighty.
FAQs
The verse ties ethical action to ritual-cosmic timing, warning that harming vegetation under a specified lunar condition is treated as an exceptionally serious transgression.
He frames even small acts, when done at prohibited times, as spiritually weighty—so weighty that they are equated with brahmahatyā—emphasizing dharma as alignment with sacred order rather than mere physical magnitude.
Within the Vishnu Purana’s worldview, dharma safeguards the divinely sustained order upheld by Vishnu; violating it—even subtly—disrupts that order and therefore carries severe karmic consequence.