Shloka 11
Adharma’s Short-Lived Prosperity and the Restorative Path of Tīrtha (लोमश–युधिष्ठिर संवादः)
नानजुर्नाकृतात्मा च नाविद्यो न च पापकृत् स्नाति तीर्थेषु कौरव्य न च वक्रमतिर्नर:,कुरुनन्दन! जो सरल नहीं है, जिसने अपने मन और इन्द्रियोंको वशमें नहीं किया है, जो विद्याहीन और पापात्मा है तथा जिसकी बुद्धि कुटिलतासे भरी हुई है, ऐसा मनुष्य (श्रद्धा न होनेके कारण) तीर्थोंमें स्नान नहीं करता
lomāśa uvāca | nānārjur nākṛtātmā ca nāvidyo na ca pāpakṛt snāti tīrtheṣu kauravya na ca vakramatir naraḥ ||
Lomaśa disse: “Ó Kauravya, o homem que não é reto, que não dominou o seu íntimo, que carece de verdadeiro conhecimento, que comete pecado e cuja mente é tortuosa—esse não se banha de fato nos vados sagrados. Para ele, peregrinação e ablução ritual são vazias, pois faltam a fé e a pureza interior.”
लोमश उवाच
Educational Q&A
External rites like bathing at tīrthas bear fruit only when supported by inner discipline and sincerity. Without straightforwardness, self-mastery, right knowledge, and freedom from sin, pilgrimage becomes merely physical travel and washing, not a true act of purification.
During the tīrtha-yātrā discourse in the Vana Parva, the sage Lomaśa instructs Yudhiṣṭhira (addressed as Kauravya) about the moral qualifications for benefiting from pilgrimage, emphasizing that inner character determines the value of sacred bathing.