Shloka 50
Treasury Security, Protection of Informants, and the Kalakavṛkṣīya Exemplum (Śānti Parva 83)
तेनैवोग्रेन्धनेनैनं दावो दहति दारुण: । तथोपमा ह्ामात्यास्ते राज॑ंस्तान्ू परिशोधय
tenaivogrendhanenainaṁ dāvo dahati dāruṇaḥ | tathopamā hy amātyās te rājan tān pariśodhaya ||
Bhishma sprach: „Durch eben dieses grimmige Brennmaterial verzehrt ein schrecklicher Waldbrand sogar diesen großen Baum. Ebenso, o König, sind deine Minister wie jene dürren Ranken geworden: von deiner Stütze genährt, sind sie so mächtig geworden, dass sie dich überrennen können, und werden dann zum Brennstoff deines Untergangs. Darum reinige die Verwaltung: prüfe, berichtige und entferne solche verderbten Beamten, ehe sie das Reich von innen her verzehren.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler must actively scrutinize and cleanse the administration. Officials who rise under royal patronage can become instruments of the king’s own destruction if left unchecked; therefore, corruption must be investigated and removed early.
Bhīṣma is instructing a king in righteous governance. Using the image of a great tree burned by a forest-fire fed by dried creepers that once grew upon it, he warns that the king’s own ministers—grown powerful under his shelter—may now endanger him and the realm, so they must be ‘purified’ through corrective action.