Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 66
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
क्षीर॑ तु बालवत्सानां ये पिबन्तीह मानवा:
kṣīraṃ tu bāla-vatsānāṃ ye pibantīha mānavāḥ | teṣāṃ vaṃśe kṣīra-pāyinaḥ kula-vṛddhi-karāś ca bālakā na jāyante | teṣāṃ santāno naśyati tathā teṣāṃ kula-vaṃśa-kṣayo bhavati ||
Wika ni Śakra: “Ang mga taong sa mundong ito na umiinom ng gatas na piniga mula sa mga bakang may napakabatang guya ay hindi nagkakaanak sa kanilang angkan na magiging karapat-dapat na ‘tagainom ng gatas’ at magpapalago sa sambahayan. Napapahamak ang kanilang supling, at kaya humihina ang kanilang angkan at lahi.”
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that exploiting a cow’s milk when her calf is still very young is an unethical act with grave karmic and social consequences, symbolized as loss of progeny and decline of one’s family line.
Indra (Śakra) is delivering a moral warning: certain harmful household practices—here, depriving a young calf by taking and consuming its mother’s milk—invite misfortune, especially the destruction of offspring and the weakening of one’s clan.