Shloka 10
कुण्डधारोपाख्यानम्
Kuṇḍadhāra-Upākhyāna: Dharma’s Superiority over Wealth and Desire
अत्र गाथा ब्रह्मगीता: कीर्तयन्ति पुराविद: । शुचेरश्रद्दधानस्य श्रद्दधानस्य चाशुचे:
atra gāthā brahmagītāḥ kīrtayanti purāvidaḥ | śucer aśraddadhānasya śraddadhānasya cāśuceḥ mīmāṃsitvobhayam devāḥ samam annam akalpayan |
ভীষ্ম বললেন—এ বিষয়ে প্রাচীন কাহিনি-জ্ঞানীরা ব্রহ্মার গীত ‘ব্রহ্মগীতা’ আবৃত্তি করেন—দেবতারা উভয় পক্ষ বিচার করে অন্ন-আহুতিকে সমান গণ্য করেছিলেন: বাহ্যত শুচি কিন্তু শ্রদ্ধাহীন, আর শ্রদ্ধাবান কিন্তু বাহ্যত অশুচি।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
External purity (śuci/aśuci) and inner faith (śraddhā/aśraddhā) do not always align; therefore the value of an offering should be assessed through thoughtful discernment rather than by outward markers alone. The verse highlights a deliberate, evaluative approach (mīmāṃsitvā) to ethical and ritual judgment.
Bhīṣma introduces an authoritative ancient saying attributed to Brahmā, reported by tradition-knowers. In that saying, the gods are described as having deliberated and then treated two contrasting kinds of donors—pure-but-faithless and faithful-but-impure—as equivalent with respect to the food-offering, emphasizing a nuanced standard of evaluation.