Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 119
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
भोजन चोरयित्वा तु मक्षिका जायते नर: । मक्षिकासंघवशगो बहून् मासान् भवत्युत
bhojanaṃ corayitvā tu makṣikā jāyate naraḥ | makṣikāsaṅghavaśago bahūn māsān bhavaty uta ||
ယုဓိဋ္ဌိရက ပြောသည်— «အစားအစာကို ခိုးယူသော ယောက်ျားသည် ပျားမဟုတ်၊ ယင်ကောင်အဖြစ် ပြန်မွေးဖွား၏။ ယင်ကောင်အုပ်စု၏ အာဏာအောက်တွင် ကျရောက်ကာ လများစွာ ထိုအခြေအနေဖြင့် နေရ၏»။
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Stealing even basic necessities like food is treated as adharma with tangible karmic consequences; the verse warns that such wrongdoing can lead to a degrading rebirth and prolonged suffering, reinforcing restraint, honesty, and respect for others’ sustenance.
Within Yudhiṣṭhira’s dharma-inquiry context in the Anuśāsana Parva, he states a specific karmaphala (result of action): the thief of food is said to be reborn as a fly and to endure life under the compulsion of a swarm for many months.