Shloka 16
अयुद्धयमानस्य वधो दारामर्ष: कृतघ्नता | ब्रह्मवित्तस्य चादानं नि:शेषकरणं तथा,युद्ध न करनेवालेको मारना, परायी स्त्रीपर बलात्कार करना, कृतघ्नता, ब्राह्मणके धनका अपहरण, किसीका सर्वस्व छीन लेना, कुमारी कन््याका अपहरण करना तथा किसी ग्राम आदिपर आक्रमण करके स्वयं उसका स्वामी बन बैठना--ये सब बातें डाकुओंमें भी निन्दित मानी गयी हैं। इस्युको भी परस्त्रीका स्पर्श और उपर्युक्त सभी पाप त्याग देने चाहिये
ayuddhayamānasya vadho dārāmarṣaḥ kṛtaghnatā | brahmavittasya cādānaṃ niḥśeṣakaraṇaṃ tathā ||
Bhīṣma said: “To kill one who is not fighting, to violate another man’s wife, to be ungrateful, to seize the wealth of a knower of Brahman (a venerable brāhmaṇa), and likewise to strip someone of everything—these are acts condemned even among robbers.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma lists certain acts—killing a non-combatant, violating another’s wife, ingratitude, seizing a holy/learned person’s wealth, and stripping someone of all possessions—as gravely adharmic, so blameworthy that even criminals condemn them; the teaching is to renounce such conduct as fundamentally unrighteous.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma after the war, Bhīṣma advises Yudhiṣṭhira by enumerating behaviors that must be avoided; here he emphasizes moral limits that apply even in contexts of conflict and power.