Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 22
आचारप्रशंसा
Praise of Ācāra as the Basis of Longevity, Fame, and Prosperity
यावन्तो रोमकूपाः स्युः स्त्रीणां गात्रेषु निर्मिता: । तावद् वर्षसहस्राणि नरकं पर्युपासते,स्त्रियोंके शरीरमें जितने रोमकूप होते हैं, उतने ही हजार वर्षोंतक व्यभिचारी पुरुषोंको नरकमें रहना पड़ता है
yāvanto romakūpāḥ syuḥ strīṇāṃ gātreṣu nirmitāḥ | tāvad varṣasahasrāṇi narakaṃ paryupāsate ||
ဘီရှ္မက မိန့်ကြားသည်– «မိန်းမတို့၏ ကိုယ်အင်္ဂါများပေါ်တွင် ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသော ဆံပင်ပေါက်အပေါက် (hair-follicles) မည်မျှရှိသနည်း၊ သစ္စာဖောက်၍ ကာမအပြစ်ကျူးလွန်သူ ယောက်ျားတို့သည် ထိုအရေအတွက်နှင့်တူညီသော ထောင်နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ နရက၌ နေရသည်»။
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Sexual infidelity (vyabhicāra) is treated as a major breach of dharma, and the verse emphasizes its severe karmic consequence through a striking numerical metaphor: the punishment is unimaginably long, measured in thousands of years corresponding to the countless hair-follicles on a woman’s body.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and right conduct. Here he delivers a moral warning about the consequences of violating sexual fidelity, framing it within the broader didactic discourse on ethical restraint and social responsibility.