Shloka 16
देवतापितृप्रश्नः — Nārada at Badarīāśrama: the ultimate referent of daiva and pitṛ worship
नास्तिकं भिन्नमर्यादें कूलपातमिव स्थितम् | वामत: कुरु विस्रब्धो नरं वेणुमिवोद्धृतम्
nāstikaṁ bhinnamaryādaṁ kūlapātam iva sthitam | vāmataḥ kuru visrabdho naraṁ veṇum ivoddhṛtam ||
जो नास्तिक हो, धर्म की मर्यादा को तोड़ चुका हो और तटों को तोड़कर गिरा देने वाली प्रचण्ड धारा की भाँति हो—ऐसे मनुष्य को उखड़े हुए बाँस की तरह बिना हिचक त्याग दो।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
One should decisively dissociate from a person who denies dharma and actively undermines moral and social boundaries, because such a person is portrayed as destructive—like a flood that breaks riverbanks.
In a didactic passage of the Śānti Parva, Vyāsa delivers a moral injunction using two vivid similes (bank-breaking flood and uprooted bamboo) to urge firm rejection of a lawless nāstika who destabilizes dharmic order.