Shloka 28
Jñāna-yoga and Karma-phala: Manu–Bṛhaspati on Akṣara and the Limits of Mantra
पापेनापिहितं पाप॑ पापमेवानुवर्तते । धर्मेणापिहितो धर्मों धर्ममेवानुवर्तते | धार्मिकेण कृतो धर्मो धर्ममेवानुवर्तते
pāpenāpihitaṃ pāpa pāpam evānuvartate | dharmeṇāpihito dharmo dharmam evānuvartate | dhārmeṇa kṛto dharmo dharmam evānuvartate ||
Bhishma said: When a deed is covered over with sin, it continues to follow the path of sin alone. When it is covered over with dharma, it follows dharma alone. And dharma performed in a righteous manner continues to yield dharma itself—goodness sustained by good means remains good in its course and consequence.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions tend to continue in the moral direction that frames them: wrongdoing, when driven and justified by sin, keeps producing sinful outcomes; righteousness, when grounded in dharma and carried out by righteous means, continues to generate dharmic results. The verse stresses that both motive and method shape the ethical trajectory of an act.
In the Shanti Parva’s post-war instruction, Bhishma teaches Yudhishthira principles of conduct and moral causality. Here he emphasizes that deeds are not ethically neutral: when an undertaking is enveloped by sin it perpetuates sin, whereas when it is enveloped by dharma—and performed in a dharmic way—it sustains dharma.