Shloka 8
Chapter 78: Royal Responsibility for Wealth, Social Order, and the Protection of Dvijas
Kekaya Exemplum
राजोवाच न मे स्तेनो जनपदे न कदर्यो न मद्यप: । नानाहिताग्निर्नायज्वा मामकान्तरमाविश:,यह देख राजाने उस राक्षससे कहा--ेरे राज्यमें एक भी चोर, कंजूस, शराबी अथवा अन्निहोत्र और यज्ञका त्याग करनेवाला नहीं है तो भी तुम्हारा मेरे शरीरमें प्रवेश कैसे हो गया?
rājovāca na me steno janapade na kadaryo na madyapaḥ | nānāhitāgnir nāyajvā māmaka-antaraṃ āviśaḥ ||
国王说道：“在我的国土之中，没有盗贼，没有吝啬之人，没有嗜酒沉醉者；也无人弃绝圣火（阿耆尼火供）或怠慢祭祀。既然如此，你怎能侵入我自身——侵入我内里之处？”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links a ruler’s legitimacy and well-being to moral and ritual order in the kingdom—absence of theft, miserliness, intoxication, and neglect of sacred duties. It also hints that harm can arise not only from visible social crimes but from subtler inner or systemic lapses that allow ‘evil’ to enter.
A king confronts a rākṣasa who has somehow entered his body. The king argues that his realm is free from common vices and from abandonment of agnihotra and sacrifice, and therefore questions how such a being could gain access to him.