Shloka 38
Jaitrya-nimitta: Signs of Prospective Victory and the Priority of Conciliation (जयलक्षण-निमित्त तथा सान्त्व-प्रधान नीति)
को देखा | च यत् कुर्युरपराधिन: । क्रोशेद् बाहुं प्रगृह्मापि चिकीर्षन् जनसंग्रहम्
ko dṛṣṭvā ca yat kuryur aparādhinaḥ | krośed bāhuṃ pragṛhya api cikīrṣan jana-saṅgraham ||
Bhishma said: “Seeing what the guilty commonly do, one should act likewise: desiring to win over public opinion, he should cry out loudly, even while grasping another’s arm, and display exaggerated grief. In the same manner, when warriors of one’s own side—slayers of enemies—have been killed or wounded, he should lament their loss as though he were an offender, wailing and bewailing so as to draw the people’s sympathy to his side.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights a tactic of rajaniti: to secure jana-saṅgraha (public support), a ruler or leader may outwardly display intense grief and sympathy—sometimes performatively—so that the people’s sentiment turns in his favor. The verse points to how public emotion can be managed, raising ethical tension between genuine compassion and calculated display.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on governance and political conduct. Here he describes how, after losses among one’s own warriors, a leader might publicly lament—crying aloud and taking someone by the arm—to create solidarity and shape public perception, much like wrongdoers who dramatize remorse to influence others.