Shloka 66
Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda
Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity
क्षीर॑ तु बालवत्सानां ये पिबन्तीह मानवा:
kṣīraṃ tu bāla-vatsānāṃ ye pibantīha mānavāḥ | teṣāṃ vaṃśe kṣīra-pāyinaḥ kula-vṛddhi-karāś ca bālakā na jāyante | teṣāṃ santāno naśyati tathā teṣāṃ kula-vaṃśa-kṣayo bhavati ||
释迦罗说道：“世间那些从仍有幼犊的母牛身上强行挤取乳汁而饮的人，不能在其家系中生出能饮乳而兴盛家族的子嗣。他们的后代走向败亡，于是宗族与血脉也随之衰落。”
शक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that exploiting a cow’s milk when her calf is still very young is an unethical act with grave karmic and social consequences, symbolized as loss of progeny and decline of one’s family line.
Indra (Śakra) is delivering a moral warning: certain harmful household practices—here, depriving a young calf by taking and consuming its mother’s milk—invite misfortune, especially the destruction of offspring and the weakening of one’s clan.