Shloka 24
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
तेषां पुत्राभिरामाणामिहलोके परत्र च । न गुणो दृश्यते कश्रनित् प्रजा: संधारयन्ति च
teṣāṃ putrābhirāmāṇām iha-loke paratra ca | na guṇo dṛśyate kaścid prajāḥ saṃdhārayanti ca ||
Bhishma said: “Even for beasts and the like—who are deeply attached to their offspring—no evident ‘gain’ is seen from rearing children, whether in this world or the next; and yet they still sustain and protect their young.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights that the impulse to protect and nurture one’s offspring operates even where no calculable worldly or otherworldly ‘profit’ is evident. This underscores parental care as a natural, duty-like force—grounded in affection and the sustaining of life rather than in transactional expectation.
In the instruction-filled Shanti Parva, Bhishma is explaining principles of conduct and motivation. Here he uses the example of animals devoted to their young to show that beings maintain and safeguard their offspring even without perceiving any explicit benefit in either this life or the next.