Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 1063
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
क्षौमं च वस्त्रमादाय शशो जन्तु: प्रजायते । सूती वस्त्रकी चोरी करके मरा हुआ मनुष्य क्रौंच पक्षीकी योनिमें जन्म लेता है। भारत! पाटम्बर
kṣaumaṃ ca vastram ādāya śaśo jantuḥ prajāyate |
Dijo Yudhiṣṭhira: «Quien toma (roba) una prenda de kṣauma renace como una criatura semejante a una liebre». El verso subraya el principio ético de que el robo—en especial de posesiones esenciales como la ropa ajena—acarrea consecuencias kármicas, expresadas aquí como un renacimiento degradante.
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The core teaching is that theft (especially of necessities like clothing) violates dharma and results in karmic retribution, here symbolized by rebirth into a lower animal form (hare).
Within Anuśāsana Parva’s dharma-instructions, Yudhiṣṭhira states a specific karmic consequence: stealing a kṣauma garment leads to rebirth as a hare-like creature, illustrating moral causality through concrete examples.