Shloka 26
दानफलप्रकरणम् — उपानहदानं, तिलदानं, भूमिदानं, गोदानं, अन्नदानं च
Gifts and Their Stated Results: Footwear, Sesame, Land, Cows, and Food
यथा जनित्री स्वं पुत्र क्षीरेण भरते सदा । अनुगृह्नाति दातारं तथा सर्वरसैर्मही,जैसे माता अपने बच्चेको सदा दूध पिलाकर पालती है, उसी प्रकार पृथ्वी सब प्रकारके रस देकर भूमिदातापर अनुग्रह करती है
bhīṣma uvāca | yathā janitrī svaṃ putraṃ kṣīreṇa bharate sadā | anugṛhṇāti dātāraṃ tathā sarvarasair mahī ||
Bhīṣma said: Just as a mother continually nourishes her own son with milk and sustains him, so too does the Earth, by bestowing every kind of produce and sap, show favor to the one who gives land.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Land-gift (bhūmi-dāna) is praised as a sustaining, life-supporting charity: the Earth reciprocates by granting abundance and well-being to the donor, just as a mother sustains her child with milk.
In Anushasana Parva, Bhishma instructs on dharma and the merits of gifts; here he uses a maternal simile to explain how the Earth supports and favors the giver of land through her many resources.