Shloka 21
नरक-निर्णयः, पाप-कर्म-फल-व्यवस्था, प्रायश्चित्त-क्रमः, तथा हरि-स्मरण-परमत्वम्
मार्जारकुक्कुटच्छागश्ववराहविहंगमान् पोषयन् नरकं याति तम् एव द्विजसत्तम
mārjārakukkuṭacchāgaśvavarāhavihaṃgamān poṣayan narakaṃ yāti tam eva dvijasattama
O best of the twice-born, one who maintains cats, roosters, goats, dogs, boars, and birds for harm or trade goes to that very hell.
Sage Parāśara (in instruction to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Sins connected with rearing animals for harm/sport/slaughter and their naraka results
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Sustaining animals with the intention of harm—whether for fighting, hunting, or slaughter—constitutes complicity in violence and leads to the same naraka consequence.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Practice compassionate stewardship of animals; avoid entertainment or profit models built on animal suffering; support non-harmful livelihoods.
Vishishtadvaita: All beings are modes within the Lord’s embodied cosmos; cruelty toward them violates dharmic service and invites karmic reaction within His just order.
FAQs
This verse treats certain animal-keeping—when tied to harm, exploitation, or slaughter—as a Kali-yuga marker that produces severe karmic results, including descent to naraka.
He frames karma as immediate moral causality: sustaining practices that enable violence becomes participation in that violence, and therefore ripens as suffering in hellish states.
Even without naming Vishnu directly, the verse presumes a Vishnu-governed moral cosmos where dharma and adharma are objectively real and sovereignly enforced through karmic law.