Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 17

Vānaprastha-dharma and Tapas: Śiva–Umā Saṃvāda

Forest-Stage Discipline and Austerity

Devanagari script

मुच्यते किल्बिषाच्चैव न स पापेन लिप्यते । धर्म च लभते नित्यं प्रेत्य लोकगतो नर:

Transliteration

mucyate kilbiṣāc caiva na sa pāpena lipyate | dharmaṃ ca labhate nityaṃ pretya lokagato naraḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma said: A man is indeed released from sin, and he is not stained by wrongdoing thereafter. He continually gains and practices dharma, and when he dies he attains a higher world.

Word by Word

• {'mucyate': 'is freed, is released', 'kila': 'indeed, it is said (emphatic/quotative particle)', 'kilbiṣa': 'sin, moral fault, demerit', 'caiva': 'and indeed', 'na': 'not', 'pāpena': 'by sin

• with wrongdoing (instrumental)', 'lipyate': 'is smeared/stained

• is tainted', 'dharmaṃ': 'dharma

• righteous duty, moral law', 'labhate': 'obtains, gains', 'nityam': 'always, continually

• regularly', 'pretya': 'having died

• after death', 'loka-gataḥ': 'gone to a world

• having attained a (post-mortem) realm', 'naraḥ': 'man, person'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Faithful listening to sacred instruction (śāstra-śravaṇa) with a purified mind removes prior sin, prevents future moral taint, establishes one in regular dharma, and leads to an auspicious post-mortem state.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and religious practice; here he highlights the ethical and spiritual fruit of attentive, faith-filled hearing of śāstra.