Varaha Purana 41.24: Adhyaya 41, Shloka 24
Rite of the Varāha Dvādaśī Vow and an Exemplary Narrative on Expiation for Brahmin-Slaying
Pūrva Bhāga · Narrative Dialogue (Ethics and Karmic Lineage)
संवर्त्त उवाच । मत्पिता हिंसकस्त्वासीदहं तस्माद्विशेषतः । भवन्तः पापकर्माणः संजाताः मम पुत्रकाः ॥ ४१.२४ ॥
saṃvartta uvāca | matpitā hiṃsakastvāsīd ahaṃ tasmād viśeṣataḥ | bhavantaḥ pāpakarmāṇaḥ saṃjātā mama putrakāḥ || 41.24 ||
saMvartta uvAcha | matpitA hiMsakastvAsIdahaM tasmAd visheShataH | bhavantaH pApakarmANaH saMjAtA mama putrakAH || 41.24 ||
สํวรรตตะกล่าวว่า “บิดาของเรามีความโหดร้าย และด้วยเหตุนั้นเราจึงยิ่งเป็นเช่นนั้น ดังนั้นพวกเจ้า—บุตรของเรา—จึงเกิดมาเป็นผู้กระทำกรรมบาป”
Sandhi Notes
- hiṃsakastvāsīt = hiṃsakaḥ + tu + āsīt
- āsīdahaṃ = āsīt + aham
- tasmādviśeṣataḥ = tasmāt + viśeṣataḥ
- matpitā = mat + pitā (तत्पुरुष)
Saṃvartta
Violence can persist through lineage as learned disposition; moral agency requires breaking inherited patterns through discipline and insight.
Examine family/cultural conditioning that normalizes harm; adopt counter-practices (ahiṃsā, restraint, tapas) to re-train character.
A teacher/elder diagnoses the moral tendency (saṃskāra) behind wrongdoing—violence inherited/learned—so that expiation targets not only the act but the disposition.
Recognizing inherited/conditioned हिंsā enables reform and purification; ignoring such tendencies perpetuates pāpa through repeated acts and familial transmission of vice.
41.41.25 (discipline prescribed as corrective); 41.41.26 (practice of japa in forest)
FAQs
It reflects a common Purāṇic narrative technique: moral characterization through lineage and prior conduct, framing ethical causality within a dialogic story structure rather than as a legal prescription.
No geographic location is named in this verse; it is focused on personal and familial ethical description within the narrative.
The verse highlights the concept of moral causality: violent disposition and harmful conduct are presented as conditions that can shape subsequent behavior and outcomes, emphasizing accountability for one’s actions.
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