Shloka 3
Adhyāya 138: Vāyu’s Exempla on Brāhmaṇa-Prabhāva and a Cosmological Clarification
निरुद्धिग्नस्तु यो दद्यान्मासमेकं गवाह्विकम् | एकभक्तं तथाश्नीयाच्छुयतां तस्य यत् फलम्
niruddhignas tu yo dadyān māsam ekaṁ gavāhvikam | ekabhaktaṁ tathāśnīyāc chruyatāṁ tasya yat phalam |
Maheshvara dit : «Écoutez quelle récompense revient à celui qui, sans trouble ni affliction, pendant un mois entier, donne chaque jour à une vache sa part quotidienne de nourriture et, lui-même, ne mange qu’une fois par jour. Écoutez le fruit qu’apportent une telle offrande disciplinée et une telle maîtrise de soi.»
महेश्वर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that calm-minded charity (supporting/feeding a cow daily) combined with personal restraint (eating once a day) is a dharmic discipline whose merit yields a specific spiritual reward, to be described in the following lines.
Maheshvara is instructing the listener about a particular vow-like practice: for one month the practitioner provides daily sustenance connected with a cow and maintains an ekabhakta regimen; Maheshvara then invites the audience to hear the resulting ‘fruit’ (karmic/spiritual outcome).