Mahabharata — Vana Parva, Shloka 4
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
मार्कण्डेय उवाच वृथा जन्मानि चत्वारि वृथा दानानि षोडश । वृथा जन्म ह्[पुत्रस्य ये च धर्मबहिष्कृता:
mārkaṇḍeya uvāca | vṛthā janmāni catvāri vṛthā dānāni ṣoḍaśa | vṛthā janma hi putrasya ye ca dharmabahiṣkṛtāḥ |
மார்கண்டேயர் கூறினார்—நான்கு வகை பிறப்புகள் வீணானவை; பதினாறு வகை தானங்கள் வீணானவை. புத்திரமில்லாதவனின் பிறப்பு வீண்; தர்மத்திலிருந்து நீக்கப்பட்டவர்களின் பிறப்பும் வீணே.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Mārkaṇḍeya frames a moral evaluation of human life and giving: certain lives and certain acts of charity become ‘fruitless’ when they are disconnected from dharma—i.e., when one is socially/morally fallen from righteous conduct or fails to fulfill key householder responsibilities.
In Vana Parva, the sage Mārkaṇḍeya delivers didactic instruction. Here he begins a list-based teaching, stating that there are four ‘fruitless’ kinds of lives and sixteen ‘fruitless’ kinds of gifts, and he starts by naming the sonless and those excluded from dharma.
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