Shloka 22
Aṣṭāvakra’s Visit to Kubera: Hospitality, Temptation, and the Ethics of Restraint (अष्टावक्र-वैश्रवणोपाख्यानम्)
समीक्षस्व पुनर्बुद्ध्या पापं त्यक्त्वा द्विजोत्तम । अयज्ञवाहिनं पापमकार्षास्त्वं सुदुर्मते
samīkṣasva punar buddhyā pāpaṁ tyaktvā dvijottama | ayajñavāhinaṁ pāpam akārsās tvaṁ sudurmate ||
ವೈಶಂಪಾಯನನು ಹೇಳಿದನು—“ಓ ದ್ವಿಜೋತ್ತಮನೇ! ಪಾಪಬುದ್ಧಿಯನ್ನು ತ್ಯಜಿಸಿ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟ ಬುದ್ಧಿಯಿಂದ ಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸು. ಓ ದುರ್ಮತೀ! ನೀನು ಯಜ್ಞದ ಗತಿಯನ್ನು ತಡೆಯುವಂತಹ ಘೋರ ಪಾಪಕರ್ಮವನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೀ.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse urges moral self-review: one should re-examine one’s actions with clear intelligence, abandon sinful intention, and recognize that deeds which hinder yajña (sacred duty and social-religious order) are serious violations of dharma.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, reports a rebuke addressed to a brāhmaṇa: the speaker calls him to reconsider and condemns his misguided act as a grave sin that disrupts sacrificial and dharmic practice.