Shloka 20
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
यूयं भूमौ विनिक्षिप्य पुत्रस्नेहविनाकृता: । श्मशाने सुतमुत्सूज्य कस्माद् गच्छत निर्घणा:
yūyaṃ bhūmau vinikṣipya putrasnehavinākṛtāḥ | śmaśāne sutam utsṛjya kasmād gacchata nirghṛṇāḥ ||
Bhishma said: “How can you be so pitiless? Casting off all affection for your son, you have brought this tender child and laid him upon the ground of the cremation-place. Why do you leave your own boy in this charnel ground and walk away?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse censures hardness of heart: abandoning natural compassion—especially parental affection—and leaving a child in a cremation ground is portrayed as adharma. It highlights karuṇā (compassion) and responsibility toward dependents as ethical imperatives.
Bhīṣma addresses a group who have brought a child to the cremation ground and left him there. He rebukes them as “nirghṛṇa” (merciless) and questions their motive for abandoning the boy in such a place.