Shloka 27
Dāna-Śreṣṭhatā: On the Superiority of Giving
Maitreya–Vyāsa Exemplum
शुभानां नाभिजानामि कृतानां कर्मणां फलम् | माता च पूजिता वृद्धा ब्राह्मणश्वार्चितो मया
śubhānāṃ nābhijānāmi kṛtānāṃ karmaṇāṃ phalam | mātā ca pūjitā vṛddhā brāhmaṇaś cārcito mayā ||
L’insecte dit : « Je n’ai pas perçu directement le fruit des bonnes actions que j’ai jadis accomplies. Pourtant, j’ai honoré et servi ma mère âgée, et j’ai aussi accueilli et vénéré comme il se doit un hôte brahmane. Ô brahmane, par la force de ce mérite, le souvenir de ma naissance antérieure ne m’a pas quitté jusqu’à ce jour. »
कीट उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even seemingly simple acts of dharma—revering one’s aged mother and honoring a worthy guest (especially a Brahmin)—generate puṇya whose effects may not be immediately visible, yet can shape one’s destiny profoundly, even preserving awareness of past-life experience.
An insect speaks reflectively about its prior life: it cannot point to obvious worldly rewards from past good deeds, but recalls having served its elderly mother and having respectfully received a Brahmin guest; it attributes its continuing memory of the former birth to the power of that merit.