Shloka 21

Go-apahāra (Cattle Theft), Go-dāna (Cow-Gift), and Suvarṇa-dakṣiṇā (Gold Fee): Karmic Consequence and Purificatory Merit

Devanagari script

यमस्तु पूजयित्वा मां ततो वचनमत्रवीत्‌ | नान्‍्त: संख्यायते राजंस्तव पुण्यस्य कर्मण:

Transliteration

yamastu pūjayitvā māṃ tato vacanam atravīt | nāntaḥ saṅkhyāyate rājan tava puṇyasya karmaṇaḥ ||

Translation

Яма оказал мне должные почести и затем сказал: «О царь, заслуги твоих праведных деяний не поддаются исчислению».

Word by Word

• {'yamaḥ': 'Yama, lord of justice and the dead

• dispenser of karmic results', 'tu': 'but/indeed (emphatic particle)', 'pūjayitvā': 'having honored, having worshipped, having shown reverence to', 'mām': 'me', 'tataḥ': 'then, thereafter', 'vacanam': 'speech, statement, utterance', 'atravīt (abravīt)': 'said, spoke', 'na': 'not', 'antaḥ': 'end, limit', 'saṅkhyāyate': 'is counted, is enumerated', 'rājan': 'O king (vocative)', 'tava': 'your', 'puṇyasya': 'of merit, of virtuous credit', 'karmaṇaḥ': 'of deeds/actions'}

Speaker

ब्राह्मण उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Yama (Yamarāja)
• King (Rājan)
• Brāhmaṇa (speaker)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even vast accumulated merit can be acknowledged as immeasurable, yet dharma operates with precision: no deed is lost, and accountability remains—virtue is praised, but any fault (even unintended) still has consequences under the moral governance symbolized by Yama.

What is happening in the narrative?

A brāhmaṇa narrator reports that Yama, after respectfully honoring him, addresses a king and declares that the king’s meritorious deeds are beyond enumeration—setting the stage for a discussion of karmic results and how even a small lapse may still require recompense.