Shloka 12
Sāma (Sāntva) and Dāna: The Brāhmaṇa’s Conciliatory Release from a Rākṣasa
अदन्नविद्वान् हन्त्यन्नमद्यमानं च हन्ति तम् । तं चान्न॑ पाति यश्चान्नं स हन्ता हन्यतेडबुध:
adann avidvān hanty annam adyamānaṃ ca hanti tam | taṃ cānnaṃ pāti yaś cānnaṃ sa hantā hanyate 'budhaḥ ||
マイトレーヤは言った。「分別なき愚者は、口にする食を滅ぼす（すなわち施主の果報を実らせない）。そしてその食は、あたかも報いのごとく、彼をも滅ぼす。だが食を護る者—堪受の器となり、施主の功徳を守る者—は、その食によって護られる。布施の果を損なう愚者は、ついには自らが打ち倒される。」
मैत्रेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Receiving food or charity without worthiness or gratitude is ethically destructive: it wastes the donor’s merit and harms the receiver. A worthy recipient ‘protects’ the gift by honoring it and enabling its intended spiritual fruit, and thus is himself protected.
Maitreya delivers a moral instruction within Anuśāsana Parva’s teachings on dharma, explaining the consequences of unworthy consumption of given food and praising the worthy recipient who preserves the giver’s merit.