Shloka 24
इन्द्रद्युम्नोपाख्यानम्
Indradyumna Upākhyāna: On Kīrti, Smṛti, and Restoration
श्राद्धे दैवे च पुरुषा येडपि नित्यं धृतव्रता: । तेडपि लोभसमायुक्ता भोक्ष्यन्तीह परस्परम्,जो सदा (परान्नका त्याग करके) व्रतका पालन करनेवाले लोग हैं, वे भी उस समय लोभवश देवयज्ञ तथा श्राद्धमें एक-दूसरेके यहाँ भोजन करेंगे
śrāddhe daive ca puruṣā ye 'pi nityaṃ dhṛtavratāḥ | te 'pi lobhasamāyuktā bhokṣyantīha parasparam ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “Even those men who are ever steadfast in their vows—who regularly observe the rites of offerings to the gods and the ancestral śrāddha—will, when that time comes, be seized by greed and will eat at one another’s houses.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that in times of moral decline, even disciplined, vow-keeping people can be overtaken by greed, causing ritual life (deva-yajña and śrāddha) to lose its purity and become driven by self-interest and social convenience.
Mārkaṇḍeya is describing a deteriorating age in which customary religious observances continue outwardly, but the inner motive shifts: people—even the devout—end up eating reciprocally at each other’s homes out of greed, signaling a corruption of intention behind sacred rites.