Shloka 80

Devanagari script

कलश्यां वार्युपस्पृश्य श्रद्दधानो जितेन्द्रिय: । अग्निष्टोमस्य यज्ञस्य फल प्राप्रोति मानव:

Transliteration

kalaśyāṃ vāry upaspṛśya śraddadhāno jitendriyaḥ | agniṣṭomasya yajñasya phalaṃ prāpnoti mānavaḥ ||

Translation

Ghūlastya said: “A person who, with faith and self-mastery, touches water kept in a ritual vessel attains the merit that belongs to the Agniṣṭoma sacrifice.” The statement elevates simple, disciplined acts—performed with sincerity and restraint—by linking them to the ethical power of Vedic sacrifice: inner purity and reverence can make even a small rite spiritually efficacious.

Word by Word

कलश्याम्in a water-pot (pitcher)

वारिwater

उपस्पृश्यhaving touched (sipped/used for purification)

श्रद्दधानःfaithful, full of श्रद्धा

जितेन्द्रियःone who has conquered the senses

अग्निष्टोमस्यof the Agniṣṭoma (soma-sacrifice)

यज्ञस्यof the sacrifice

फलम्fruit, result

प्राप्नोतिattains, obtains

मानवःa man, human

Speaker

घुलस्त्य उवाच

Characters & Entities

Ghūlastya

kalaśa (ritual water-pot)

Agniṣṭoma yajña

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Faith (śraddhā) and self-control (jitendriyatā) are presented as the decisive inner conditions that make a simple purificatory act—touching water in a ritual vessel—equivalent in merit to a major Vedic sacrifice (Agniṣṭoma).

What is happening in the narrative?

Ghūlastya is instructing or affirming a rule of religious practice: a disciplined, faithful person gains sacrificial fruit through a prescribed act of ritual contact with consecrated water, emphasizing inner disposition alongside external rite.