Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 53
Ahiṃsā as Threefold Restraint (Mind–Speech–Action) and the Ethics of Consumption
प्राक् श्वा भवति राजेन्द्र तत: क्रव्यात्तत: खर: । ततः प्रेत: परिक्लिष्ट: पश्चाज्जायति ब्राह्मण:
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | prāk śvā bhavati rājendra tataḥ kravyāttataḥ kharaḥ | tataḥ pretaḥ parikliṣṭaḥ paścāj jāyati brāhmaṇaḥ ||
坚战说道：“诸王之王啊，先则为犬；继而为食肉之罗刹（rākṣasa）；再而为驴。其后死去，作受苦的饿鬼（preta），历经诸多折磨，方得再生于婆罗门（brāhmaṇa）之胎。”此偈以卑贱转生与死后苦厄的次第，昭示愚弟子冒犯师长之罪的沉重，直至终能复归人身（婆罗门）之生。
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that disrespecting or harming one’s teacher (guru-aparādha) is a grave ethical violation with severe karmic consequences, leading to degrading births and suffering in the preta state before eventual return to human birth.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a king (likely Bhīṣma’s interlocutor contextually) and states a karmic sequence: a foolish disciple who offends his teacher is reborn successively as a dog, then a flesh-eating being, then a donkey; after death he suffers as a preta, and only afterward attains birth as a brāhmaṇa.