Shloka 13
अयं तु पापप्रकृतिर्बाले न कुरुते दयाम् | स्वयोनिं मानयत्येष भावो भावं नियच्छति,यह स्वभावसे ही पापात्मा है; इसीलिये दूसरेके बच्चेपर दया नहीं करता है। यह अपने इस कुकृत्यद्वारा अपनी चाण्डाल योनिका ही सम्मान बढ़ा रहा है। जातिगत स्वभाव ही मनोभावपर नियन्त्रण करता है
ayaṁ tu pāpaprakṛtir bāle na kurute dayām | svayoniṁ mānayaty eṣa bhāvo bhāvaṁ niyacchati ||
Bhīṣma said: “This one is of sinful disposition; therefore he shows no compassion toward the child. By such wrongdoing he only magnifies the repute of his own outcaste birth. Indeed, one’s inborn nature governs the movements of the mind.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma emphasizes that a person’s ingrained disposition (bhāva/prakṛti) strongly shapes and governs mental impulses and ethical behavior; lack of compassion reveals a corrupt nature and leads to further moral degradation.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma, he comments on a cruel individual who shows no mercy to a child, interpreting this act as evidence of a sinful temperament and as conduct that reinforces the person’s degraded social identity.