Shloka 11
Nārada–Vāyu–Śalmali Upākhyāna: Enmity with the Strong and the Primacy of Buddhi (नारद-वायु-शल्मलि उपाख्यानम्)
रुधिरस्थेव ते गन्ध: शवस्येव च दर्शनम् । अशिव: शिवसंकाशो मृतो जीवन्निवाटसि,“तुमसे रुधिरकी-सी गन्ध निकलती है। तेरा दर्शन वैसा ही है, जैसा मुर्देका दीखना। तू देखनेमें मंगलमय है; परंतु है अमंगलरूप। वास्तवमें तू मर चुका; परंतु जीवित की भाँति घूम रहा है
rudhirastha iva te gandhaḥ śavasyeva ca darśanam | aśivaḥ śiva-saṅkāśo mṛto jīvann ivāṭasi ||
Bhīṣma said: “A smell like clotted blood clings to you, and your very appearance is like that of a corpse. Though you seem outwardly auspicious, you are in truth inauspicious. In reality you are already dead, yet you wander about as if alive.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Outward respectability or a show of auspiciousness cannot conceal inner moral decay. When one’s conduct becomes stained by grave wrongdoing, one is ‘dead’ in ethical-spiritual terms—moving about bodily alive but cut off from true well-being and dharma.
Bhīṣma delivers a harsh moral denunciation, describing the addressed person as reeking of blood and looking like a corpse—an image meant to expose hidden guilt and the inauspicious state produced by violent or unrighteous deeds, despite any outwardly pleasing appearance.