Shloka 16
देवतापितृप्रश्नः — Nārada at Badarīāśrama: the ultimate referent of daiva and pitṛ worship
नास्तिकं भिन्नमर्यादें कूलपातमिव स्थितम् | वामत: कुरु विस्रब्धो नरं वेणुमिवोद्धृतम्
nāstikaṁ bhinnamaryādaṁ kūlapātam iva sthitam | vāmataḥ kuru visrabdho naraṁ veṇum ivoddhṛtam ||
Disse Vyāsa: “Rejeita sem hesitação o incrédulo que despedaçou os limites do dharma—como uma correnteza violenta que rompe as margens e provoca ruína. Abandona tal homem com decisão, como se descarta um bambu arrancado pela raiz.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
One should decisively dissociate from a person who denies dharma and actively undermines moral and social boundaries, because such a person is portrayed as destructive—like a flood that breaks riverbanks.
In a didactic passage of the Śānti Parva, Vyāsa delivers a moral injunction using two vivid similes (bank-breaking flood and uprooted bamboo) to urge firm rejection of a lawless nāstika who destabilizes dharmic order.