Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 71
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
अक्षयं च कथं दानं भवेच्चैवोर्ध्वदेहिकम् । आनृण्यं वा कथं मर्त्या गच्छेयु: केन कर्मणा
akṣayaṃ ca kathaṃ dānaṃ bhaveccai vordhvadehikam | ānṛṇyaṃ vā kathaṃ martyā gaccheyuḥ kena karmaṇā ||
Sinabi ni Śakra: “Paano magiging di-nauubos ang isang handog (dāna), at paano ito magbubunga para sa tao matapos ang kamatayan? At sa anong gawa makakamit ng mga mortal ang kalayaan sa pagkakautang (pagkalaya sa dapat bayaran)?”
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharmic inquiry: what kind of giving becomes ‘akṣaya’ (inexhaustible merit), what actions yield benefit beyond death, and how one may become ‘ānṛṇya’—free from binding obligations or debts—through right conduct.
Indra (Śakra), speaking as a questioner, asks for instruction about the conditions and actions that make charity enduring, ensure posthumous spiritual benefit, and lead humans to a state of being debtless—setting up a teaching on the proper manner, object, and intention of dāna and dharma.