Shloka 5636
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
अन्तरा चैव नाश्नाति तस्य लोका हानामया: । जो लोग छठी राततक उपवास करते हैं, वे मोर जुते हुए विमानोंद्वारा जाते हैं। पाण्डुनन्दन! जो लोग एक बार भोजन करके उसीपर तीन रात काट ले जाते हैं और बीचमें भोजन नहीं करते, उन्हें रोग-शोकसे रहित पुण्यलोक प्राप्त होते हैं
antarā caiva nāśnāti tasya lokā hānāmayāḥ |
Sabi ni Vaiśampāyana: “Ang hindi kumakain sa pagitan ay nakakamit ang mga daigdig na walang pagkalugmok at walang karamdaman. Yaong nag-aayuno hanggang sa ikaanim na gabi ay sinasabing naglalakbay sa mga vimāna na hinihila ng mga paboreal. O anak ni Pāṇḍu, yaong minsan lamang kumain at saka tinatawid ang tatlong gabi na iyon na umaasa sa pagkaing iyon—na walang kinakain sa pagitan—ay nakararating sa mga banal na daigdig na di tinatablan ng sakit at dalamhati.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage teaches that disciplined restraint in eating—undertaken as a vrata—generates puṇya, leading to exalted posthumous states described as realms free from decline, disease, and sorrow. It frames bodily self-control as an ethical-spiritual practice with karmic results.
Vaiśampāyana is describing to a Pāṇḍava (addressed as ‘son of Pāṇḍu’) the specific fruits of certain fasting patterns: fasting up to six nights is poetically rewarded with travel in peacock-yoked vimānas, while eating once and then abstaining for three nights yields access to meritorious, affliction-free worlds.