Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, 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 |
जो मनुष्य उद्वेगरहित होकर एक मास तक प्रतिदिन गौ को उसका आहार देता है और स्वयं एक ही समय भोजन करता है—उसे जो फल मिलता है, उसका वर्णन सुनो।
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).