Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 18
Nārāyaṇa-tejas: Kṛṣṇa’s Vrata, the Fire-Manifestation, and the Sages’ Inquiry (अनुशासन पर्व, अध्याय १२६)
“जिस कुलमें पति अपनी पत्नीसे और पत्नी अपने पतिसे संतुष्ट रहती हो, वहाँ सदा कल्याण होता है ।।
Bhīṣma uvāca: Yatra kule patiḥ svāṃ patnīṃ prati ca patnī svam patiṃ prati ca saṃtuṣṭā bhavati, tatra sadā kalyāṇaṃ bhavati. Adbhir gātrān malaṃ iva, tamo 'gniprabhyā yathā; dānena tapasā caiva sarva-pāpam apohati.
Bhishma said: In a family where the husband is content with his wife and the wife is content with her husband, welfare and auspiciousness continually abide. Just as water washes away the grime from the body and the radiance of fire dispels darkness, so do generosity and austerity remove all sin from a person.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma teaches that harmony in marriage—mutual contentment between husband and wife—creates lasting welfare in the household, and that moral purification is achieved through dāna (generosity) and tapas (disciplined austerity), which remove sin as effectively as water cleans the body and firelight dispels darkness.
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma. Here he emphasizes household ethics and personal purification, using vivid everyday analogies (washing with water, darkness removed by firelight) to explain how virtuous conduct sustains family well-being and how dāna and tapas cleanse moral faults.