Shloka 7
Tapas, Tīrtha, and Moral Rehabilitation (Śānti-parva 148)
क्षुत्पिपासातपसह: कृशो धमनिसंततः
kṣutpipāsātapasahaḥ kṛśo dhamanisaṃtataḥ
Bhīṣma said: “Worn down by hunger, thirst, and the scorching heat, he had become emaciated, with his veins standing out prominently.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the bodily cost of deprivation—hunger, thirst, and heat—often used in Śānti Parva to frame ethical reflection: true dharma and self-mastery are tested not in comfort but amid hardship, where endurance and restraint become morally significant.
Bhīṣma is describing a person’s physical condition: weakened by lack of food and water and by exposure to heat, the person has grown gaunt, with veins visibly protruding—setting a vivid scene of austerity or distress within the ongoing instruction on dharma.