Shloka 38
Dietary Rules & Purification — Dietary Rules, Purification (Śauca), and the Duties of the Householder and Forest-Dweller
यो नित्यकर्मणो हानिं कुर्यान्नैमित्तिकस्य च भुक्त्वान्नं तस्य शुद्ध्येत त्रिरात्रोपोषितो नरः
yo nityakarmaṇo hāniṃ kuryānnaimittikasya ca bhuktvānnaṃ tasya śuddhyeta trirātropoṣito naraḥ
നിത്യകർമ്മങ്ങളെയും നൈമിത്തികകർമ്മങ്ങളെയും ഉപേക്ഷിപ്പിക്കുന്നവൻ—അവന്റെ അന്നം കഴിച്ചാൽ മനുഷ്യൻ മൂന്ന് രാത്രികൾ ഉപവസിച്ച് ശുദ്ധി പ്രാപിക്കുന്നു।
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FAQs
Ritual discipline is presented as socially consequential: neglect of obligatory duties affects not only the doer but those who partake in his dependency-network (e.g., food). The remedy—three-night fasting—emphasizes self-restraint as a means to restore purity and mindfulness.
This is dharma/ācāra material (prāyaścitta and karma-niyama) embedded in a purāṇic chapter; it is not directly one of the five pancalakṣaṇa categories, though it can appear alongside vamśānucarita/manvantara narratives as prescriptive teaching.
“Three nights” can symbolize a complete cycle of restraint sufficient to reset conduct and intention. The linkage of purity to ‘food of the negligent’ symbolically frames nourishment as inseparable from the ethical order (ṛta/dharma).