Shloka 21
Adhyāya 214: Tapas Redefined—Perpetual Discipline, Hospitality, and the Ethics of Eating (तपः-निरूपणम्, विघसाशी-अतिथिप्रिय-धर्मः)
पयस्यन्तर्तितं सर्पिर्यद्वन्निर्मथ्यते खजै: । शुक्र निर्मथ्यते तद्धत् देहसंकल्पजै: खजै:
payasy antarhitaṃ sarpir yadvan nirmathyate khajaiḥ | śukraṃ nirmathyate tadvad deha-saṅkalpajaiḥ khajaiḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Just as ghee hidden within milk is brought out by churning with a churning-stick, so too semen is stirred forth from a man’s body when it is ‘churned’ by bodily imaginings and sense-driven provocations—such as seeing and touching women. The teaching is to recognize how desire is mechanically produced by contact and mental construction, and therefore to restrain the senses and the mind.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Desire and sexual discharge are not random; they are ‘churned out’ by saṅkalpa (mental ideation) and by sensory contact. Therefore, ethical discipline requires guarding the senses and regulating thought, so that agitation does not arise and self-mastery is preserved.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and conduct, Bhīṣma uses a vivid household metaphor—extracting ghee from milk by churning—to explain how the mind and senses can agitate the body and bring forth semen, warning against indulgent seeing/touching that fuels passion.