Shloka 14
उपदेशदोषप्रसङ्गः (Upadeśa-doṣa-prasaṅgaḥ) — The Risk of Misapplied Counsel
भवत्प्रसादादिच्छामि धर्म वक्तुं द्विजर्षभ । तन्मां त्वं भगवन् वक्तुं प्रत्राजयितुमरहसि
bhavatprasādād icchāmi dharmaṁ vaktuṁ dvijarṣabha | tan māṁ tvaṁ bhagavan vaktuṁ pravrājayitum arhasi ||
Bhishma sprach: «Durch eure Gnade, o Bester unter den Zweimalgeborenen, wünsche ich das Dharma zu erkennen und darzulegen. Darum, o Ehrwürdiger, gewährt mir die Erlaubnis und erachtet mich für würdig, ordnungsgemäß die pravrajyā—die Weihe zur Entsagung—zu empfangen.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma should be taught with humility, proper authorization, and inner discipline; Bhishma seeks the sanction of a revered Brahmin/teacher and asks for formal renunciant initiation so that his exposition of dharma is grounded in spiritual legitimacy rather than mere personal opinion.
In the Anushasana Parva’s instruction-setting, Bhishma addresses a revered twice-born authority, stating that by the latter’s grace he wishes to expound dharma, and requests to be formally admitted into the renunciant state (pravrajyā) as a fitting prelude to delivering religious-ethical instruction.