Shloka 4
Rajo-guṇa-nirdeśa — Brahmā’s Enumeration of Rajasic Dispositions
वधबन्धपरिक्लेशा: क्रयो विक्रय एव च । निकृन्त छिन्धि भिन्धीति परमर्मावकर्तनम्
vadhabandhaparikleśāḥ krayo vikraya eva ca | nikṛnta chindhi bhindhīti paramarmāvakartanam ||
Vāyu-deva said: “Killing and captivity with their attendant torments, buying and selling of persons, and the brutal cries—‘cut him down, sever him, split him!’—all this is the hacking at the very vital core of living beings.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns violence and dehumanization—killing, imprisonment, and treating persons as commodities—portraying them as assaults on the very ‘marma’ (vital essence) of life. It frames such acts as ethically corrosive, not merely physically harmful.
Vāyu-deva speaks in a reflective, admonitory tone, listing the harsh realities of coercion and brutality—commands to cut and split, along with captivity and trade—highlighting the moral horror and suffering embedded in such practices.