Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 40
Viṣṇu-sahasranāma—Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry and Bhīṣma’s Recitation (विष्णोर्नामसहस्रम्)
असम्भाष्या: पितृणां च देवानां चैव पञज्च ते । स्नातकानां च विप्राणां ये चानये च तपोधना:,इन पाँचों पापाचारियोंसे देवताओं, पितरों, स्नातक ब्राह्मणों तथा अन्यान्य तपोधनोंको बातचीत भी नहीं करनी चाहिये
asambhāṣyāḥ pitṝṇāṃ ca devānāṃ caiva pañca te | snātakānāṃ ca viprāṇāṃ ye cānye ca tapodhanāḥ ||
Yama dit : «Avec ces cinq-là, il ne faut pas converser. Les dieux et les Mânes (pitṛs), de même que les brahmanes snātaka ayant achevé leur période d’étude, et d’autres ascètes riches en austérités, ne devraient pas même leur adresser la parole.»
यम उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a rule of ethical distance: certain grave wrongdoers are ‘asambhāṣya’—so morally contaminating or socially destructive that even conversation with them is to be avoided by the gods, ancestors, and the most disciplined human exemplars (snātakas and ascetics). It emphasizes that speech and association are forms of participation, so restraint protects dharma.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Yama is delivering normative instruction on dharma. Here he refers back to a previously listed set of “five” offenders and declares them unfit for interaction, extending the injunction universally—from divine and ancestral realms to learned Brahmins and austere sages.