Shloka 16

Devanagari script

नास्तिकं भिन्नमर्यादें कूलपातमिव स्थितम्‌ | वामत: कुरु विस्रब्धो नरं वेणुमिवोद्धृतम्‌,जो नास्तिक हो, धर्मकी मर्यादा भंग कर रहा हो और किनारेको तोड़- फोड़कर गिरा देनेवाले नदीके महान्‌ जल-प्रवाहकी भाँति स्थित हो, ऐसे मनुष्यको उखाड़े हुए बाँसकी तरह बिना किसी हिचकके त्याग दो

Transliteration

nāstikaṁ bhinnamaryādaṁ kūlapātam iva sthitam | vāmataḥ kuru visrabdho naraṁ veṇum ivoddhṛtam ||

Translation

Вьяса сказал: «Без колебаний отвергни неверующего, разрушившего границы дхармы, — подобно бурному потоку, что ломает берега и ввергает всё в обвал. Оставь такого человека решительно, как выбрасывают бамбук, вырванный с корнем».

Word by Word

नास्तिकम्an atheist/irreligious person

भिन्नमर्यादम्one who has broken the bounds/limits (of dharma)

कूलपातम्bank-breaking collapse/erosion (lit. falling of the bank)

इवlike, as

स्थितम्standing/being (so), situated

वामतःto the left; (also) adversely/contrarily

कुरुdo; make; (here) cast away/abandon

विस्रब्धःunhesitating, confidently, without fear

नरम्a man/person

वेणुम्a bamboo (reed)

इवlike, as

उद्धृतम्uprooted, pulled out

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vyāsa

nāstika (unbeliever)

riverbank (kūla)

bamboo (veṇu)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

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.

What is happening in the narrative?

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.