Shloka 15
Janamejaya’s Appeal for Pacification and Śaunaka’s Counsel on Humility (जनमेजय-शौनक संवादः)
दत्तमाहारमिच्छामि त्वया क्षुद् बाधते हि माम् । स तद्वचः प्रतिश्रुत्य वाक्यमाह विहड्भम:
dattam āhāram icchāmi tvayā kṣud bādhate hi mām | sa tad-vacaḥ pratiśrutya vākyam āha vihaṅgamaḥ, sañcayo nāsti cāsmākaṃ munīnām iva bhojane |
彼は言った。「お前が与えられる食を口にしたい。飢えがまことに私を責め立てるのだ。」それを聞いて鳥は答えた。「兄弟よ、あなたの飢えを鎮めるほどの財も蓄えも、私にはない。私たちは森に住む鳥で、日々ついばみ得たものだけで命をつないでいる。ムニ（修行者）のように、食を貯えることはないのだ。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights aparigraha (not hoarding) and the ethical tension of hospitality: a forest creature lives day-to-day without stored provisions, resembling ascetics, yet must respond compassionately to a hungry guest.
A hungry visitor asks for food. The bird replies that it has no stored supplies—only what it gathers daily—framing its simple livelihood and setting up the moral challenge of how to offer hospitality despite scarcity.