Shloka 23
Śulka, Kanyā, and Dauhitra-Riktha: Discourse on Bride-Price and Inheritance Rights (शुल्क-कन्या-दौहित्र-रिक्थविचारः)
मिथुनस्यास्य कि मे स्यात् कृतं पापं यथा गति: । अनिष्टा सर्वभूतानां कीर्तितानेन मेडद्य वै
mithunasyāsya ki me syāt kṛtaṃ pāpaṃ yathā gatiḥ | aniṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṃ kīrtitānena medady vai ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Welche Sünde habe ich begangen, dass mir ein solches Los zuteilwerden soll—ein Los, das allen Wesen Unheil bringt—wie das Los, das heute vor mir für dieses Paar von Mann und Frau geschildert wurde?“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds moral causality: one’s future ‘gati’ (destiny or post-mortem state) is shaped by one’s actions (pāpa/adharma). Bhishma’s question frames an ethical inquiry into what kinds of wrongdoing lead to a universally harmful, inauspicious fate.
Bhishma, responding to a description he has just heard about the grim fate allotted to a certain man–woman pair, reflects aloud and asks what sin could cause him to incur a similar, universally inauspicious destiny.