Shloka 24
Adhyāya 174: Karma as an inescapable companion (कर्मानुगमन-उपदेश)
मित्रकी सहायतासे भोगोंकी भी उपलब्धि होती है और मित्रद्वारा मनुष्य आपत्तियोंसे छुटकारा पा जाता है, अतः बुद्धिमान् पुरुष उत्तम सत्कारोंद्वारा मित्रका पूजन करे ।।
mitrakī sahāyatāse bhogāṁkī caiva labhyate | mitreṇa ca manuṣyo 'pattibhyaḥ parimucyate || ataḥ paṇḍito nityaṁ satkāraiḥ pūjayen mitram || parityājyo budhaiḥ pāpaḥ kṛtaghno nirapatrapaḥ | mitradrohī kulāṅgāraḥ pāpakarmā narādhamaḥ ||
Bhishma said: With a friend’s support, one attains enjoyments and the means of living; and through a friend a person is also freed from calamities. Therefore, a wise man should honor and cherish his friend with excellent courtesies and respectful hospitality. But the wise should always abandon the wicked man—one who is sinful, ungrateful, shameless, a betrayer of friends, a disgrace that burns his own lineage, and one whose conduct is evil—such a lowest of men is to be renounced.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Honor and cultivate true friends through respectful conduct, because friendship brings both prosperity and protection in adversity; but decisively renounce those marked by ingrained vice—ingratitude, shamelessness, betrayal, and habitual wrongdoing.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma continues advising on righteous living and social ethics, explaining the practical value of friendship and giving criteria for whom a wise person should avoid.