Shloka 103
Kośa-saṃjanana and Subtle Dharma
Treasury Formation and Fine-Grained Ethics
न त्वेवोज्झितमयदिर्दस्युभि: सहितश्चरेत् । वह वनकी शरण लेकर मृगोंके साथ भले ही विचरे; किंतु मर्यादा भंग करनेवाले डाकुओंके साथ कदापि न रहे
na tv evojjhitamaryādo dasyubhiḥ sahitaś caret | vanaṃ gatvā śaraṇaṃ kṛtvā mṛgaiḥ sārdhaṃ bhale caret; kintu maryādā-bhaṅga-kāriṇāṃ dasyūnāṃ saha kadācid api na tiṣṭhet ||
Bhīṣma said: “One should never keep company with bandits who have cast off all restraint and violate the boundaries of dharma. It is better to take refuge in the forest and wander even among wild animals than to live, even for a moment, with lawless men who break the limits of dharma.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Choose one’s company by dharma: it is better to endure hardship or solitude than to associate with people who have abandoned moral restraint and violate social-ethical boundaries.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on righteous conduct. Here he emphasizes the danger of keeping company with lawless men, contrasting it with the safer—even if harsher—option of living in the forest among wild animals.