Shloka 3
Adhyāya 177: Pañca-mahābhūta-vicāra and Vṛkṣa-jīva-lakṣaṇa
Five Elements Inquiry and the Status of Plant Life
अब्रवीन्मां पुरा वश्िद् ब्राह्मणस्त्यागमाश्रित: । क्लिश्यमान: कुदारेण कुचैलेन बुभुक्षया,पहलेकी बात है, फटे-पुराने वस्त्रों एवं अपनी दुष्टा सत्रीके और भूखके कारण अत्यन्त कष्ट पानेवाले एक त्यागी ब्राह्मणने जिसका नाम शम्पाक था, मुझसे इस प्रकार कहा --
abravīn māṃ purā kaścid brāhmaṇas tyāgam āśritaḥ | kliśyamānaḥ kudāreṇa kucailena bubhukṣayā ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Vor langer Zeit redete ein Brahmane, der sich der Entsagung verschrieben hatte, zu mir. Schwer bedrängt—von einer schlechten Frau, von zerlumpten Kleidern und von Hunger—wandte er sich so an mich.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharma-inquiry: even a person inclined to renunciation may face acute worldly distress (hunger, poverty, domestic suffering). The ethical focus is on how one should respond—through restraint, discernment, and adherence to dharma rather than collapse into anger or wrongdoing.
Bhīṣma begins recounting an earlier encounter: a suffering brāhmaṇa who had taken up renunciation approaches him and speaks, introducing a didactic episode meant to illuminate conduct under hardship.