Mahabharata 3.201.83 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 83
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
सायं प्रातश्न संध्यां यो ब्राह्मणो5भ्युपसेवते । प्रजपन् पावनीं देवीं गायत्रीं वेदमातरम्
sāyaṃ prātaś ca sandhyāṃ yo brāhmaṇo 'bhyupasevate | prajapan pāvanīṃ devīṃ gāyatrīṃ vedamātaram ||
Seorang brāhmaṇa yang dengan setia menjalankan upacara sandhyā pada waktu fajar dan senja, serta melafalkan Dewi Gāyatrī yang menyucikan—Ibu segala Veda—menjadi amat suci dan bebas dari dosa oleh anugerah beliau. Sekalipun ia menerima sebagai pemberian seluruh bumi hingga ke samudra yang mengelilinginya, ia tetap tidak jatuh ke dalam mara bahaya.
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Regular sandhyā observance and Gāyatrī-japa are presented as powerful disciplines that purify the practitioner and protect him from moral and worldly downfall; inner purity, sustained by daily practice and divine grace, outweighs even the risks associated with great wealth or gifts.
Yudhiṣṭhira is describing the religious ideal of a brāhmaṇa: one who performs dawn-and-dusk rites and recites the Gāyatrī. He emphasizes the resulting purity and safety, even in the extreme scenario of receiving the entire earth as a donation.
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