Mahabharata 3.201.68 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 68
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
स्वागतेनाग्नयस्तृप्ता आसनेन शतक्रतुः । पितर: पादशौचेन अन्नाद्येन प्रजापति:
svāgatena agnayaḥ tṛptāḥ āsanena śatakratuḥ | pitaraḥ pādaśaucena annādyena prajāpatiḥ |
युधिष्ठिर बोले— ब्राह्मण का स्वागत करने से अग्नियाँ तृप्त होती हैं; उसे आसन देने से शतक्रतु इन्द्र तृप्त होते हैं; उसके पाँव धोने से पितर तृप्त होते हैं; और उसे भोजन योग्य अन्न देने से प्रजापति (ब्रह्मा) तृप्त होते हैं।
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Hospitality to a worthy guest—especially a brāhmaṇa—is itself a dharmic sacrifice: welcoming pleases the sacred fires, offering a seat pleases Indra, washing the feet pleases the ancestors, and feeding pleases Prajāpati/Brahmā. Small acts of reverence are presented as spiritually consequential.
Yudhiṣṭhira is articulating norms of proper reception (satkāra) for a brāhmaṇa/guest, mapping each element of guest-honoring—welcome, seat, foot-washing, and food—to the satisfaction of major divine and ancestral recipients, thereby reinforcing atithi-dharma within the Vana Parva discourse.
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