Shloka 10
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
न भक्षयन्त्यतो मांसं तपोयुक्ता मनीषिण: । दोषांस्तु भक्षणे राजन् मांसस्येह निबोध मे,इसलिये तपस्यामें लगे हुए मनीषी पुरुष कभी मांस नहीं खाते हैं। राजन! अब मैं मांसभक्षणमें जो दोष है, उनको यहाँ बता रहा हूँ, सुनो
na bhakṣayanty ato māṁsaṁ tapoyuktā manīṣiṇaḥ | doṣāṁs tu bhakṣaṇe rājan māṁsasy eha nibodha me ||
Bhishma said: “Therefore, men of discernment who are devoted to austerity do not eat meat. O King, now understand from me the faults that attend the eating of meat in this world—listen.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma links spiritual discipline (tapas) and ethical discernment with abstaining from meat, and he frames meat-eating as carrying moral defects that he is about to enumerate.
In the Anushasana Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma addresses the king (Yudhishthira), transitioning into a detailed critique of meat consumption by announcing that he will explain its faults.