Shloka 17
Prāyaścitta and Contextual Non-Culpability (प्रायश्चित्त-निमित्त-अदोषवाद)
मरुप्रपातं प्रपतन् ज्वलनं वा समाविशन् । महाप्रस्थानमातिष्ठ न् मुच्यते सर्वकिल्बिषै:,जलहीन देशमें पर्वतसे गिरकर अथवा अग्निमें प्रवेश करके या महाप्रस्थानकी विधिसे हिमालयमें गलकर प्राण दे देनेसे मनुष्य सब पापोंसे छुटकारा पा जाता है
maru-prapātaṁ prapatan jvalanaṁ vā samāviśan | mahāprasthānam ātiṣṭhan mucyate sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ ||
व्यास उवाच—मरुप्रपाते जलहीने देशे पर्वतात् प्रपतन्, ज्वलनं वा समाविशन्, अथवा महाप्रस्थानं विधिवत् आस्थाय हिमवति देहं विलाप्य प्राणान् त्यजन्—सर्वकिल्बिषेभ्यः प्रमुच्यते।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts that certain extreme renunciant modes of dying—falling from a barren mountain precipice, entering fire, or performing the Mahāprasthāna—are treated as expiatory, leading to release from accumulated moral faults (kilbiṣa). It reflects a discourse on prāyaścitta and the purificatory power attributed to severe austerity at life’s end.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and expiation, Vyāsa describes recognized ‘final acts’ associated with renunciation. He lists three paradigmatic ways of relinquishing the body—fatal fall in a waterless wilderness, entering fire, and the Himalayan Mahāprasthāna—presenting them as means by which a person is said to be freed from sins.