Shloka 91
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
श्वा भूत्वा कृतकर्मासौ जायते मानुषस्तत: । तत्रापत्यं समुत्पाद्य मृतो जायति मूषिक:
śvā bhūtvā kṛtakarmāsau jāyate mānuṣas tataḥ | tatrāpatyaṃ samutpādya mṛto jāyati mūṣikaḥ ||
犬となったのち、その者は先に為した業の果を受け尽くし、やがて人として生まれる。だが人の身にあっても子はただ一人をもうけるのみで、ほどなく死し、残る罪の果報を受けるため鼠として生まれる。
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the doctrine of karmic fruition across rebirths: a being may pass through animal and human births, experiencing and exhausting portions of past sinful results until the remaining residue is also undergone.
Yudhiṣṭhira describes a sequence of transmigrations: after living as a dog and finishing that portion of karmic consequence, the being is reborn human, begets one child, dies, and then takes birth as a mouse to experience the remaining sinful result.