Shloka 38
Treasury Security, Protection of Informants, and the Kalakavṛkṣīya Exemplum (Śānti Parva 83)
छट्मयकामैरकामस्य गमितो यमसादनम् । दृष्ट होतन्मया राजंस्तपोदीर्घेन चक्षुषा
chaṭmayakāmair akāmasya gamito yamasādanam | dṛṣṭa etan mayā rājan tapodīrghena cakṣuṣā ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „O König, von Menschen, die von niedrigen und kleinlichen Begierden getrieben waren, wurde ein Mann, der selbst frei von Verlangen war, in die Wohnstatt Yamas (des Todes) geführt. Ich habe dies gesehen, o König, mit der weitreichenden Schau, die aus langer Askese erwächst.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even a person who is inwardly free from desire can be harmed or destroyed by others’ petty cravings; therefore dharma requires vigilance against the corrupting power of base desires, and it honors the clarity that comes from tapas (disciplined austerity) to discern such moral causality.
Bhīṣma, instructing the king, cites something he has personally ‘seen’ through ascetic, far-reaching insight: a desireless person being driven to Yama’s abode by people motivated by ignoble desires—an example used to warn about the destructive consequences of low motives.