Shloka 27
Satya–Anṛta Viveka (Discrimination between Truth and Falsehood) | सत्य–अनृत विवेकः
न कक्षिदस्ति पापानां धर्म इत्येष निश्चय: । तथागतं च यो हन्यान्नासौ पापेन लिप्यते,पापियोंका तो यही निश्चय होता है कि धर्म कोई वस्तु नहीं है; ऐसे लोगोंको जो मार डाले, उसे पाप नहीं लगता
na kaścid asti pāpānāṃ dharma ity eṣa niścayaḥ | tathāgataṃ ca yo hanyān nāsau pāpena lipyate ||
Bhīṣma said: “For the sinful, this is the settled conviction: ‘There is no such thing as dharma.’ And if such a person were to kill even one who has ‘thus gone’—a truly accomplished, rightly-conducted being—he does not feel himself stained by sin. Such is the blindness of those who have abandoned moral discernment.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma highlights a hallmark of moral collapse: the wicked deny the very reality of dharma and therefore do not experience inner restraint or remorse. When conscience is deadened, even grave harm—symbolically, killing a truly virtuous person—fails to register as sin in their own mind.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on righteousness and conduct, Bhīṣma is teaching Yudhiṣṭhira about the psychology of adharma: how sinners rationalize wrongdoing by rejecting dharma itself, and how that denial leads to shameless violence and a sense of being ‘unstained’ despite culpable acts.