Shloka 21
Kośa, Bala, and Maryādā: Treasury, Capacity, and Enforceable Limits (कोश-बल-मर्यादा)
यथा वै ब्राह्मण: सीदन्नयाज्यमपि याजयेत् । अभोज्यान्नानि चाश्रीयात् तथेदं नात्र संशय:
yathā vai brāhmaṇaḥ sīdann ayājyam api yājayet | abhojyānnāni cāśrīyāt tathā idaṃ nātra saṃśayaḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „So wie ein Brāhmaṇa, wenn er aus Mangel an Lebensunterhalt in Not versinkt, sogar für jemanden ein Opfer vollziehen darf, der gewöhnlich nicht geeignet ist, es zu stiften, und um das Leben zu bewahren sogar zu Speise greifen darf, die sonst verboten ist — ebenso ist auch die im vorherigen Vers für den Kṣatriya vorgeschriebene Pflicht zu verstehen. Daran besteht kein Zweifel.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
In extreme hardship (āpaddharma), preserving life and sustaining one’s role may justify limited exceptions to normal rules—such as a brāhmaṇa officiating for an ordinarily ineligible patron or eating normally forbidden food—paralleling emergency duties prescribed for a kṣatriya.
Bhīṣma, instructing on dharma in the Śānti Parva, clarifies that the previous instruction about a kṣatriya’s conduct in crisis should be accepted without doubt, using the brāhmaṇa’s emergency allowances as an analogy.