Shloka 4
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
मार्कण्डेय उवाच वृथा जन्मानि चत्वारि वृथा दानानि षोडश । वृथा जन्म ह्[पुत्रस्य ये च धर्मबहिष्कृता:,मार्कण्डेयजीने कहा--(नीचे लिखे अनुसार) चार प्रकारके जीवन व्यर्थ हैं और सोलह प्रकारके दान व्यर्थ हैं। जो पुत्र-हीन हैं, जो धर्मसे बहिष्कृत (भ्रष्ट) हैं, जो सदा दूसरोंकी ही रसोईमें भोजन किया करते हैं तथा जो केवल अपने लिये ही भोजन बनाते एवं देवता और अतिथियोंको न देकर अकेले ही भोजन कर लेते हैं, उनका वह भोजन असत् कहा गया है। अत: उनका जन्म वृथा है (इस प्रकार इन चार प्रकारके मनुष्योंका जन्म व्यर्थ है)
mārkaṇḍeya uvāca | vṛthā janmāni catvāri vṛthā dānāni ṣoḍaśa | vṛthā janma hi putrasya ye ca dharmabahiṣkṛtāḥ |
Sinabi ni Mārkaṇḍeya: “Apat na uri ng kapanganakan ang walang saysay, at labing-anim na uri ng pagbibigay ang walang saysay. Tunay ngang walang saysay ang kapanganakan ng taong walang anak na lalaki, at gayundin ang sa mga itinakwil mula sa dharma.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Mārkaṇḍeya frames a moral evaluation of human life and giving: certain lives and certain acts of charity become ‘fruitless’ when they are disconnected from dharma—i.e., when one is socially/morally fallen from righteous conduct or fails to fulfill key householder responsibilities.
In Vana Parva, the sage Mārkaṇḍeya delivers didactic instruction. Here he begins a list-based teaching, stating that there are four ‘fruitless’ kinds of lives and sixteen ‘fruitless’ kinds of gifts, and he starts by naming the sonless and those excluded from dharma.