Shloka 102
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
न हि पापानि कर्माणि शुद्धयबन्त्यनशनादिभि: । सीदत्यनशनादेव मांसशोणितलेपन:
na hi pāpāni karmāṇi śuddhyanty anaśanādibhiḥ | sīdaty anaśanād eva māṃsaśoṇitalepanaḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Sinful deeds are not purified merely by fasting and similar austerities. One who is smeared with flesh and blood only wastes away by fasting alone.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
External austerities like fasting do not by themselves erase the moral weight of wrongdoing; true purification requires appropriate atonement and ethical transformation, not mere self-starvation.
Yudhiṣṭhira reflects on the limits of ascetic practices as a means of expiating grave faults, warning that fasting alone only weakens a person still stained by violent or sinful deeds.