Shloka 5636
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
अन्तरा चैव नाश्नाति तस्य लोका हानामया: । जो लोग छठी राततक उपवास करते हैं, वे मोर जुते हुए विमानोंद्वारा जाते हैं। पाण्डुनन्दन! जो लोग एक बार भोजन करके उसीपर तीन रात काट ले जाते हैं और बीचमें भोजन नहीं करते, उन्हें रोग-शोकसे रहित पुण्यलोक प्राप्त होते हैं
antarā caiva nāśnāti tasya lokā hānāmayāḥ |
ヴァイシャンパーヤナは語った。「その間に食を断つ者は、衰えと病のない世界を得る。第六夜まで断食する者は、孔雀を轅に繋いだヴィマーナに乗って往くと伝えられる。パーンドゥの子よ、一度だけ食し、その食に頼って三夜を過ごし—途中で何も口にしない者—は、病と憂いに触れぬ功徳の世界に至る。」
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage teaches that disciplined restraint in eating—undertaken as a vrata—generates puṇya, leading to exalted posthumous states described as realms free from decline, disease, and sorrow. It frames bodily self-control as an ethical-spiritual practice with karmic results.
Vaiśampāyana is describing to a Pāṇḍava (addressed as ‘son of Pāṇḍu’) the specific fruits of certain fasting patterns: fasting up to six nights is poetically rewarded with travel in peacock-yoked vimānas, while eating once and then abstaining for three nights yields access to meritorious, affliction-free worlds.