Shloka 12
वेन-पृथु-प्रादुर्भावः, राजधर्मः, पृथिवीदोहनम्
Vena–Pṛthu Episode and the Milking of Earth
स मातामहदोषेण तेन मृत्योः सुतात्मजः निसर्गाद् एव मैत्रेय दुष्टभावो व्यजायत
sa mātāmahadoṣeṇa tena mṛtyoḥ sutātmajaḥ nisargād eva maitreya duṣṭabhāvo vyajāyata
Wahai Maitreya, kerana cela daripada datuk sebelah ibu, putera yang lahir dalam keturunan Mṛtyu itu sejak awal lagi berwatak jahat secara semula jadi.
Sage Parāśara
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Causal explanation for Vena’s adharmic nature preceding his reign.
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: diagnostic; cautionary about lineage/saṃskāra and moral disposition
Concept: Adharmic tendencies may manifest from prior causes (doṣa/saṃskāra), hence rulers must be guided and restrained by dharma and sādhus.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Cultivate wholesome saṃskāras through disciplined conduct, good counsel, and devotion; do not rationalize harmful impulses as ‘natural’.
Vishishtadvaita: Even when dispositions arise from prior conditioning, the jīva remains under the Lord’s governance and can be reoriented through sādhana and grace mediated by sādhus.
Key Kings: Vena, Mṛtyu
FAQs
This verse uses the idea of a maternal-grandfather’s doṣa to explain moral causality across generations—how tendencies can manifest “from birth itself” as part of the Purāṇic framework of karma and inherited dispositions.
Parāśara frames it as a consequence of prior causes—here, a specific ancestral defect—so the character of a descendant is narrated as the fruition of earlier moral conditions, not as a random event.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Vishnu Purana’s genealogical histories operate under Vishnu’s supreme governance of ṛta/dharma—presenting moral order and karmic fruition as aspects of the universe sustained by the Supreme Reality.