Shloka 57
बक-गौतमाख्यानम् / The Baka–Gautama Account
On Gratitude and Friendship Ethics
छिन्दन् भिन्दन् रुजन् कृन्तन् दारयन् पोथयन्नपि
chindan bhindan rujan kṛntan dārayan pothayann api
Bhīṣma said: “Even while cutting, splitting, crushing, hacking, tearing apart, and striking—acts that evoke the harshness of violence—one must understand the moral weight such deeds carry and the discipline required to restrain them within dharma.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse strings together verbs of injury to foreground the reality of violence; in Śānti Parva this typically serves to frame an ethical discussion: even when force is employed, it must be governed by dharma, restraint, and accountability rather than impulse or cruelty.
Bhīṣma, instructing in Śānti Parva, uses a rapid list of violent actions—cutting, splitting, crushing, hacking, tearing, striking—as a rhetorical buildup, likely leading into guidance about the limits, consequences, or regulation of harmful acts within righteous conduct.