Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
न भक्षयन्त्यतो मांसं तपोयुक्ता मनीषिण: । दोषांस्तु भक्षणे राजन् मांसस्येह निबोध मे
na bhakṣayanty ato māṁsaṁ tapoyuktā manīṣiṇaḥ | doṣāṁs tu bhakṣaṇe rājan māṁsasy eha nibodha me ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Darum essen Männer von Einsicht, die der Askese ergeben sind, kein Fleisch. O König, erkenne nun von mir die Fehler, die in dieser Welt das Fleischessen begleiten — höre zu.“
भीष्म उवाच
Bhishma links spiritual discipline (tapas) and ethical discernment with abstaining from meat, and he frames meat-eating as carrying moral defects that he is about to enumerate.
In the Anushasana Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma addresses the king (Yudhishthira), transitioning into a detailed critique of meat consumption by announcing that he will explain its faults.