Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 27
Viṣṇu-sahasranāma—Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry and Bhīṣma’s Recitation (विष्णोर्नामसहस्रम्)
तमो<न्धकारं नियतं दीपदो न प्रपश्यति । प्रभां चास्य प्रयच्छन्ति सोमभास्करपावका:,दीपदान करनेवाला मनुष्य नरकके नियत अन्धकारका दर्शन नहीं करता। उसे चन्द्रमा, सूर्य और अग्नि प्रकाश देते रहते हैं
tamo’ndhakāraṃ niyataṃ dīpado na prapaśyati | prabhāṃ cāsya prayacchanti somabhāskarapāvakāḥ ||
Wika ni Yama: “Ang nagkakaloob ng ilawan ay hindi makakakita ng tiyak na dilim ng impiyerno. Sa halip, ang Buwan, ang Araw, at ang Apoy ay patuloy na magbibigay sa kanya ng kanilang liwanag.”
यम उवाच
Educational Q&A
Donating a lamp (dīpa-dāna) is praised as a dharmic act that counters darkness—symbolically ignorance and karmic obscuration—and yields a luminous, protected destiny after death, free from the ‘fixed darkness’ associated with hell.
Yama, the lord of justice and the afterlife, explains the fruit of a specific gift: the giver of a lamp is spared the experience of hell’s darkness and is instead sustained by the cosmic lights—Moon, Sun, and Fire—who grant him radiance.