Shloka 140
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
क्रकचैः पाट्यमानस्तु क्षुरधाराभिरप्यधः ।
अन्धे तमसि दुःखार्तः पूयशोणितभोजनः ॥
krakacaiḥ pāṭyamānas tu kṣuradhārābhir apy adhaḥ |
andhe tamasi duḥkhārtaḥ pūyaśoṇitabhojanaḥ ||
He was being sawn with saws, and below (also) by razor-edged blades; in blind darkness, afflicted with pain, he had pus and blood as his food.
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FAQs
The Purāṇic method uses stark imagery to impress that cruelty and disrespect to dharma ‘cut’ the doer in return—pain becomes the pedagogy that mirrors one’s own harmfulness.
Not pancalakṣaṇa; it is ethical instruction via naraka description.
Saws and blades represent the mind’s fragmentation under guilt and tamas; ‘pus and blood as food’ symbolizes forced consumption of one’s own corrupt outputs (a closed karmic loop).