Shloka 17

Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda

Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity

Devanagari script

मुच्यते किल्बिषाच्चैव न स पापेन लिप्यते । धर्म च लभते नित्यं प्रेत्य लोकगतो नर:

Transliteration

mucyate kilbiṣāc caiva na sa pāpena lipyate | dharmaṃ ca labhate nityaṃ pretya lokagato naraḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma sprach: Der Mensch wird wahrlich von Sünde befreit und wird danach nicht mehr durch Unrecht befleckt. Stets gewinnt und übt er Dharma, und nach dem Tod gelangt er in eine höhere Welt.

Word by Word

• {'mucyate': 'is freed, is released', 'kila': 'indeed, it is said (emphatic/quotative particle)', 'kilbiṣa': 'sin, moral fault, demerit', 'caiva': 'and indeed', 'na': 'not', 'pāpena': 'by sin

• with wrongdoing (instrumental)', 'lipyate': 'is smeared/stained

• is tainted', 'dharmaṃ': 'dharma

• righteous duty, moral law', 'labhate': 'obtains, gains', 'nityam': 'always, continually

• regularly', 'pretya': 'having died

• after death', 'loka-gataḥ': 'gone to a world

• having attained a (post-mortem) realm', 'naraḥ': 'man, person'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Faithful listening to sacred instruction (śāstra-śravaṇa) with a purified mind removes prior sin, prevents future moral taint, establishes one in regular dharma, and leads to an auspicious post-mortem state.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and religious practice; here he highlights the ethical and spiritual fruit of attentive, faith-filled hearing of śāstra.