Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 119
Puṣkara-Śapatha Itihāsa (Agastya–Indra Dispute at the Tīrthas) | पुष्कर-शपथ-आख्यानम्
उपाध्यायमध: कृत्वा ऋचो<ध्येतु अजूंषि च । जुहोतु च स कक्षाग्नौ बिसस्तैन्यं करोति यः:
upādhyāyam adhaḥ kṛtvā ṛco 'dhyetuṃ yajūṃṣi ca | juhotu ca sa kakṣāgnau bisastainyaṃ karoti yaḥ ||
Sinabi ni Bharadvāja: “Ang magnakaw ng bisa (mga hibla ng tangkay ng lotus) ay magkakamit ng kaparehong kasalanan ng taong pinauupo ang kanyang guro (upādhyāya) sa mas mababang lugar, saka nag-aaral ng Ṛgveda at Yajurveda nang walang paggalang, at naghahandog ng oblation sa isang apoy na damo lamang. Ang aral: kahit ang pagnanakaw na wari’y maliit ay mabigat na paglabag sa dharma; at ang banal na pag-aaral at ritwal, kapag ginawa sa paghamak sa guro at sa wastong paraan, ay nagiging kasalanan sa halip na kabutihang-bunga.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse equates the theft of something seemingly small (lotus-stalk fibres) with grave religious misconduct: disrespecting one’s teacher while undertaking Vedic study and performing a degraded form of ritual. It teaches that dharma depends on intention, reverence, and right conduct—not merely on the external act.
Bharadvāja is enumerating and grading moral faults. He states that a person who steals bisas bears a sin comparable to someone who humiliates the upādhyāya, studies the Vedas in that disrespectful posture, and offers oblations into an improper ‘grass-fire,’ thereby turning sacred acts into wrongdoing.