Shloka 16
Adhyāya 3: Indra’s Invitation and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Refusal to Abandon the Dog
Svargārohaṇa Test
भीतिप्रदानं शरणागतस्य स्त्रिया वधो ब्राह्मणस्वापहार: । मित्रद्रोहस्तानि चत्वारि शक्र भक्तत्यागश्चनैव समो मतो मे
bhītipradānaṁ śaraṇāgatasya striyā vadho brāhmaṇasvāpahāraḥ | mitradrohas tāni catvāri śakra bhaktatyāgaś ca naiva samo mato me ||
ユディシュティラは言った。「庇護を求めて来た者を脅かすこと、女を殺すこと、バラモンの財を奪うこと、友を裏切ること——この四つは、シャクラよ、重き罪である。だが私の判断では、いずれも信愛（神へのバクティ）を捨てることに比べれば及ばぬ。」
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse ranks grave ethical violations—terrorizing a refuge-seeker, killing a woman, stealing a brāhmaṇa’s property, and betraying a friend—and then asserts that abandoning devotion is, in Yudhiṣṭhira’s moral vision, an even more serious spiritual downfall, because it severs one’s inner orientation toward the highest good.
In the Mahāprasthānika context, Yudhiṣṭhira is articulating a hierarchy of wrongdoing while addressing Śakra (Indra), emphasizing that beyond social and interpersonal crimes, the loss of steadfast devotion is portrayed as the most ruinous lapse for one who seeks the highest path at life’s end.