Shloka 21
Brāhmaṇya-प्रश्नः — The Inquiry into Attaining Brāhmaṇya
Mataṅga–Gardabhī Itihāsa
देविकायामुपस्पृश्य तथा सुन्दरिकाहदे । अश्रिन्यां रूपवर्चस्कं प्रेत्य वै लभते नर:
devikāyām upaspṛśya tathā sundarikā-hrade | aśvinyāṁ rūpa-varcaskaṁ pretya vai labhate naraḥ ||
Dengan mandi suci di Devikā, demikian pula di telaga Sundarikā dan di tirtha Aśvinī, seseorang setelah wafat, pada kelahiran berikutnya, sungguh memperoleh keelokan rupa dan sinar kemuliaan yang cemerlang.
अजड्रिय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that disciplined purity-practices—especially bathing at revered tīrthas—are treated as dharmic acts whose karmic fruit is described as auspicious personal qualities (beauty and radiance) in a future birth, reinforcing the ethic of reverence, self-purification, and faith in moral causality.
A speaker named Ajadriya is listing specific sacred bathing places (Devikā, the lake of Sundarikā, and Aśvinī-tīrtha) and stating the promised result of bathing there: after death, the pilgrim is reborn with enhanced beauty and splendor.