Shloka 3
Nāga–Nāgabhāryā Saṃvāda: Varṇa-Dharma, Gṛhastha-Discipline, and Mokṣa-Self-Inquiry
Mahābhārata 12.347
त्वया मतिमतां श्रेष्ठ तन्मे शंस यथागमम् | किमेतत् क्रियते कर्म फलं वास्य किमिष्यते
tvayā matimatāṃ śreṣṭha tan me śaṃsa yathāgamam | kim etat kriyate karma phalaṃ vāsyā kim iṣyate ||
ဝိုင်ရှမ္ပာယနက ပြောသည်– “ပညာရှိတို့အနက် အထက်မြတ်သူ၊ သာသနာတော်အစဉ်အလာအတိုင်း ငါ့အား ပြောကြားပါ။ ဤဆောင်ရွက်နေသော ကိစ္စသည် မည်သည့် ရိတုနည်း၊ ထိုမှ မည်သည့် အကျိုးကို မျှော်လင့်သနည်း?”
वैशमग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharmic inquiry: any ritual action (karma) should be understood through śāstric/traditional authority (āgama) and evaluated by its intended fruit (phala). It emphasizes clarity of purpose and legitimacy of practice.
A question is posed to a learned person described as foremost among the wise, asking—according to tradition—what rite is being performed and what result is sought from it. Vaiśaṃpāyana introduces or reports this inquiry.