Shloka 113
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
एकस्तरति दुर्गाणि गच्छत्येकस्तु दुर्गतिम् । बृहस्पतिजीने कहा--राजन्! प्राणी अकेला ही जन्म लेता
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca |
ekas tarati durgāṇi gacchaty ekas tu durgatim |
yaḥ nīcaḥ puruṣo dhana-lobhena vā śatrutā-kāraṇād vā śastraṃ gṛhītvā nihataṃ (aśastraṃ) puruṣaṃ hanti sa mṛtyor anantaram gardabha-yoniṃ prāpnoti ||
kharo jīvati varṣe dve tataḥ śastreṇa vadhyate |
sa mṛto mṛga-yoniṃ tu nityodvignaḥ punar jāyate ||
ユディシュティラは言った。「人は独りで難所を渡り、独りで破滅へと落ちる。生きとし生けるものは独りで生まれ、独りで死に、独りで苦を乗り越えることも、災いを味わうこともする。ゆえに、財を貪るがため、あるいは怨敵ゆえに、武器を取りて無手の者を殺す卑しき男は、死後、驢馬の胎に生まれる。驢馬として二年を生き、やがて武器により殺される。かくして死ねば鹿の類に生まれ、狩人を恐れて常におびえ、絶えず不安のうちに生きる。」
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral responsibility is personal and inescapable: one faces the fruits of one’s actions alone. Specifically, violence driven by greed or enmity—especially killing an unarmed person—leads to degrading rebirths and a life marked by fear and suffering.
In Anuśāsana Parva’s ethical instruction, Yudhiṣṭhira articulates (with a traditional attribution to Bṛhaspati in the accompanying gloss) a karmic warning: the killer of an unarmed man is reborn first as a donkey, then after being slain, as a deer-like creature, living constantly terrified of hunters.