Shloka 48
राजोवाच यत्तद् वर्षशतं पूर्ण जप्यं वै जपता त्वया । फल प्राप्तं तत् प्रयच्छ मम दित्सुर्भवान् यदि,राजाने कहा--मुने! यदि आप देना ही चाहते हैं तो पूरे सौ वर्षोतक जप करके आपने जिस फलको प्राप्त किया है, वही मुझे दे दीजिये
rājovāca yattad varṣaśataṁ pūrṇaṁ japyaṁ vai japatā tvayā | phalaṁ prāptaṁ tat prayaccha mama ditsur bhavān yadi ||
Vua nói: “Hỡi bậc hiền triết, nếu ngươi thật muốn ban cho ta điều gì, thì hãy ban cho ta chính quả phúc mà ngươi đã đạt được nhờ hoàn tất trọn một trăm năm trì tụng nghiêm mật. Hãy trao cho ta công đức ấy.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse probes the ethics of spiritual merit: the king demands not a material gift but the hard-won fruit of a century of japa, raising the question whether inner merit can—or should—be transferred, and highlighting the tension between genuine giving and possessive entitlement.
In a dialogue between a king and a Brāhmaṇa/ascetic, the king responds to an offer of giving by specifying what he wants: the exact spiritual reward the sage gained through a hundred years of recitation, effectively testing the meaning and limits of ‘giving’ in a dharmic context.