Shloka 14
Sukesha's Boon & Twelve Dharmas — Sukesha’s Boon, the Twelve Dharmas of Beings, and the Cosmography of the Seven Dvipas with the Twenty-One Hells
सुकेशिरुवाच किंलक्षणो भवेद् धर्मः किमाचरणसत्क्रियः यमाश्रित्य न सीदन्ति देवाद्यास्तु तदुच्यताम्
sukeśiruvāca kiṃlakṣaṇo bhaved dharmaḥ kimācaraṇasatkriyaḥ yamāśritya na sīdanti devādyāstu taducyatām
Sukeśī said: What are the characteristics of dharma? What conduct and proper observances constitute it? That by taking refuge in which the gods and others do not fall into distress—please declare that.
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FAQs
The verse frames dharma as both definable by 'lakṣaṇa' (principles/marks) and knowable through 'ācaraṇa' and 'satkriyā' (lived practice and sanctioned rites). It also ties dharma to cosmic stability: dharma is that support by which even devas avoid decline.
This is an instructional/didactic query that typically accompanies purāṇic narrative frames. It is not directly one of the five lakṣaṇas (sarga, pratisarga, vaṃśa, manvantara, vaṃśānucarita), but it is consistent with purāṇas’ function of teaching dharma alongside genealogies and cosmology.
By asking for a dharma that prevents 'sīdana' (sinking/decline) of devas, the text symbolically presents dharma as the buoyant principle of order (ṛta/dharma) that sustains both divine and human realms—an axis between ethics and cosmic maintenance.