Shloka 113
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
एकस्तरति दुर्गाणि गच्छत्येकस्तु दुर्गतिम् । बृहस्पतिजीने कहा--राजन्! प्राणी अकेला ही जन्म लेता
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca |
ekas tarati durgāṇi gacchaty ekas tu durgatim |
yaḥ nīcaḥ puruṣo dhana-lobhena vā śatrutā-kāraṇād vā śastraṃ gṛhītvā nihataṃ (aśastraṃ) puruṣaṃ hanti sa mṛtyor anantaram gardabha-yoniṃ prāpnoti ||
kharo jīvati varṣe dve tataḥ śastreṇa vadhyate |
sa mṛto mṛga-yoniṃ tu nityodvignaḥ punar jāyate ||
एक एव तरति दुर्गाणि, एक एव च दुर्गतिं गच्छति। प्राणी एकाकी जायते, एकाकी म्रियते; एकाकी दुःखं तरति, एकाकी च विपत्तिं भुङ्क्ते। तस्माद् यो नीचः पुरुषो धनलोभात् वैरभावाद् वा शस्त्रमादाय शस्त्रहीनं नरं हन्ति, स मृतः खरयोनौ जायते। खरत्वे स द्वे वर्षे जीवति, ततः शस्त्रेण वध्यते; एवं मृतः मृगयोनौ जायते, नित्यं व्याधभयात् उद्विग्नः॥
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral responsibility is personal and inescapable: one faces the fruits of one’s actions alone. Specifically, violence driven by greed or enmity—especially killing an unarmed person—leads to degrading rebirths and a life marked by fear and suffering.
In Anuśāsana Parva’s ethical instruction, Yudhiṣṭhira articulates (with a traditional attribution to Bṛhaspati in the accompanying gloss) a karmic warning: the killer of an unarmed man is reborn first as a donkey, then after being slain, as a deer-like creature, living constantly terrified of hunters.