Adhyaya 26 — Madālasa Names Alarka and Reorients Him Toward Kshatriya Duty
कर्ममार्गः समुच्छेदं नैवं देवि ! गमिष्यति ।
पितृपिण्डनिवृत्तिश्च नैवं साध्वि ! भविष्यति ॥
karma-mārgaḥ samucchedaṃ naivaṃ devi! gamiṣyati / pitṛ-piṇḍa-nivṛttiś ca naivaṃ sādhvi! bhaviṣyati //
«О Деви, путь предписанного деяния не должен быть пресечён таким образом. О добродетельная, так и подношение рисовых шариков (piṇḍa) предкам не должно прекращаться — его нельзя останавливать.»
Dharma is intergenerational: household and royal duties sustain not only society but also the ritual economy of obligations to ancestors. Renunciation that breaks these duties is treated as adharma when undertaken without proper succession and provision.
Anucarita with dharma-upadeśa (ethical instruction) connected to vaṃśa maintenance.
Pitṛ offerings symbolize repayment of existential ‘debts’ (ṛṇa). Esoterically, stopping them implies severing the subtle bonds of continuity (saṃskāra/lineage-memory) that stabilize embodied life.