Shloka 5
Adhyāya 241: Guṇa-sṛṣṭi, Kṣetrajña-sākṣitva, and Śama through Ātma-jñāna (गुणसृष्टिः, क्षेत्रज्ञसाक्षित्वं, शमः)
अस्ति धर्म इति प्रोक्त नास्तीत्यत्रैव यो वदेत् । तस्य पक्षस्य सदृशमिदं मम भवेद् व्यथा,“धर्म है, ऐसा शास्त्रका उपदेश है, इसके विपरीत यदि कोई कहे कि धर्म नहीं है तो उसे सुनकर एक आस्तिकको जितना कष्ट होता है, उसके पक्षके ही समान यह कर्म और विद्याका तारतम्यविषयक प्रश्न मेरे लिये क्लेशदायक है
asti dharma iti prokta nāstīty atraiva yo vadet | tasya pakṣasya sadṛśam idaṁ mama bhaved vyathā ||
Bhishma said: “The scriptures declare, ‘Dharma exists.’ But if someone were to assert right here, ‘Dharma does not exist,’ the anguish that would arise in a believer on hearing that—an anguish aligned with the believer’s side—so too does this question about the relative ranking of action and knowledge become a source of distress for me.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma underscores that denying the existence of dharma contradicts authoritative teaching and causes deep moral-spiritual distress; he likens his own discomfort over debates on the hierarchy of action and knowledge to the pain a believer feels when dharma is negated.
In the Shanti Parva’s instructional setting, Bhishma is responding to a philosophical query; before addressing the issue of the relative status of karma (action) and vidyā/jñāna (knowledge), he remarks that such disputation troubles him much like hearing an outright denial of dharma.