Shloka 6
Adhyāya 122 — Śruta-vṛtta-yukta Brāhmaṇa and the Ethics of Dāna
Maitreya–Vyāsa Saṃvāda
मनुष्य मूर्ख हो या विद्वान, यदि वह वाणी, बुद्धि और हाथ-पैरसे रहित होकर जीवित है तो उसे कौन-सी वस्तु त्यागेगी, वह तो सभी पुरुषार्थोंसे स्वयं ही परित्यक्त है ।।
Manuṣya mūrkho ho yā vidvān, yadi sa vāṇī-buddhi ca hasta-pāda-rahitaḥ san jīvati, tarhi taṃ kā vastu tyajet? sa tu sarvaiḥ puruṣārthaiḥ svayam eva parityaktaḥ. Jīvana hi kurute pūjāṃ viprāgryaḥ śaśi-sūryayoḥ; bruvann api kathāṃ puṇyāṃ tatra kīṭa tvam eṣyasi, kīṭa!
व्यास उवाच—मनुष्यो मूर्खो वा विद्वान् वा, यदि वाग्बुद्धिपाणिपादविहीनो जीवति, तं कः परित्यजेत्? स हि सर्वपुरुषार्थैः स्वयमेव परित्यक्तः॥ अस्ति च विप्राग्र्यो जीवनो नाम, यः शशिसूर्ययोः नित्यं पूजां करोति, पुण्यां कथां च ब्रूते। तत्र, हे कीट, त्वं क्रमशः पुत्रत्वेन जनिष्यसे॥
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Human flourishing (puruṣārtha) depends on functional capacities like speech, discernment, and agency; without them, worldly aims fall away on their own. The passage also underscores karmic consequence and moral causality through the promise of a future birth shaped by association with a pious Brahmin devoted to worship and sacred narration.
Vyāsa speaks in a didactic tone: first he reflects on how a severely incapacitated life is effectively ‘abandoned’ by the usual human goals; then he introduces a virtuous Brahmin named Jīvana who worships the Sun and Moon and tells holy stories, declaring to a being addressed as ‘kīṭa’ that it will be reborn there as a son.