Shloka 11
Adhyāya 9: Pratiśruta-Dāna
The Duty to Fulfill Promised Gifts
कि त्वया पापकं पूर्व कृतं कर्म सुदारुणम् । यस्त्वं श्मशाने मृतकान् पूतिकानत्सि कुत्सितान्
ki tvayā pāpakaṁ pūrvaṁ kṛtaṁ karma sudāruṇam | yas tvaṁ śmaśāne mṛtakān pūtikān atsi kutsitān ||
Bhishma said: “What grievous sin did you commit in the past—what terribly cruel deed—because of which you now, in the cremation-ground, eat corpses that are foul and decaying, an act held in utter contempt?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds karmic causality: horrific present conditions are framed as the ripened result of prior grievous wrongdoing, prompting ethical reflection on how actions generate consequences.
Bhishma poses a direct moral inquiry to a being found in a cremation-ground eating putrid corpses, asking what dreadful past deed could have led to such a degraded state.