Shloka 41
Adhyāya 166: Kṛtaghna-doṣa (कृतघ्नदोषः) — the fault of ingratitude and the limits of expiation
अधर्मकारी धर्मेण तपसा हन्ति किल्बिषम् | ब्रुवन् स्तेन इति स्तेनं तावत् प्राप्नोति किल्बिषम्
adharmakārī dharmeṇa tapasā hanti kilbiṣam | bruvan stena iti stenaṃ tāvat prāpnoti kilbiṣam |
Bhishma said: One who has acted unrighteously can, through the practice of dharma and through austerity (tapas), destroy the stain of sin. Yet merely by declaring of someone, “He is a thief,” a person incurs, to that extent, the very taint of wrongdoing associated with the thief.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma and tapas can purify even a wrongdoer, but speech is morally potent: labeling someone as “a thief” (especially as a condemnatory assertion) makes the speaker share in the moral taint connected with that accusation. The verse warns against careless or harmful denunciation and stresses responsibility in words.
In the Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma after the war. Here he contrasts two ethical points: the possibility of self-purification through righteous practice and austerity, and the danger of incurring sin through injurious speech—showing that moral accountability applies not only to deeds but also to words.