Shloka 38
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
एवं स्त्री नापराध्नोति नर एवापराध्यति । व्युच्चरंश्ष महादोषं नर एवापराध्यति
evaṁ strī nāparādhnoti nara evāparādhyati | vyuccaran mahādoṣaṁ nara evāparādhyati ||
Bhīṣma said: “In truth, a woman is not the one at fault here; it is the man who commits the offence. It is the man who incurs the grave sin of sexual transgression; therefore, he alone is to be held culpable.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral responsibility for sexual wrongdoing is placed primarily on the man; Bhīṣma frames culpability as belonging to the agent who initiates/commits the transgression, warning that the grave sin (mahādoṣa) is his.
In the Śānti Parva’s dharma-instruction setting, Bhīṣma is delivering ethical guidance to Yudhiṣṭhira; here he states a normative judgment about blame and culpability in cases of sexual misconduct, emphasizing male accountability.