Shloka 81
Aṣṭāvakra’s Visit to Kubera: Hospitality, Temptation, and the Ethics of Restraint (अष्टावक्र-वैश्रवणोपाख्यानम्)
वेदान् कृत्स्नान् ब्राह्मण: प्राप्तुयात् तु जयेन्नूप: पार्थ महीं च कृत्स्नाम् । वैश्यो लाभ प्राप्त॒यान्नैपुणं च शूद्रो गतिं प्रेत्य तथा सुखं च
vedān kṛtsnān brāhmaṇaḥ prāpnuyāt tu jayed nṛpaḥ pārtha mahīṁ ca kṛtsnām | vaiśyo lābhaṁ prāpnuyān naipuṇaṁ ca śūdro gatiṁ pretya tathā sukhaṁ ca, kuntīnandana |
Dijo Vāyu: “Por la recitación de esto, un brāhmaṇa obtiene el fruto pleno del estudio de todos los Vedas. Un kṣatriya—oh Pārtha—alcanza la victoria sobre toda la tierra. Un vaiśya logra gran ganancia y destreza en el comercio. Y un śūdra obtiene dicha en este mundo y, tras la muerte, un buen destino. Oh hijo de Kuntī.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a phalaśruti: the claimed fruits of reciting a sacred instruction differ according to varṇa—Vedic-study merit for the brāhmaṇa, sovereignty for the kṣatriya, commercial success for the vaiśya, and worldly happiness plus a good afterlife for the śūdra—framing spiritual practice as supporting each group’s dharmic aims.
Vāyu addresses Arjuna (called Pārtha and Kuntīnandana) and concludes or reinforces a teaching by stating the rewards that accrue from its recitation, mapping those rewards onto the traditional fourfold social order.