Shloka 43
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
“इस प्रकार विचार करनेसे एक तो वह नारी होनेके कारण ही अवध्य है, दूसरे मेरी पूजनीया माता है। माताका गौरव पितासे भी बढ़कर है, जिसमें मेरी माँ प्रतिष्ठित है। नासमझ पशु भी स्त्री और माताको अवध्य मानते हैं (फिर मैं समझदार मनुष्य होकर भी उसका वध कैसे करूँ?) ।।
devatānāṁ samavāyam ekasthaṁ pitaraṁ viduḥ | martyānāṁ devatānāṁ ca snehād abhyeti mātaram ||
Bhishma explains: “Upon reflection, first, because she is a woman, she is by her very nature to be regarded as inviolable and not to be slain; and second, she is my venerable mother, worthy of worshipful reverence. A mother’s dignity is greater even than a father’s, for within her is established the very ground of one’s life and devotion. Even unthinking animals instinctively hold women and mothers to be beyond harm—how then could I, a discerning human, commit violence against her? The wise know the father as a single locus embodying the collective of the gods; but through her affection the mother gathers within herself the whole community of mortals and gods—therefore her greatness surpasses even the father’s.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse elevates the ethical inviolability of the mother (and, by extension, women) and argues that maternal status commands the highest restraint: the father is revered as a concentrated embodiment of divine authority, yet the mother—through her nurturing affection—symbolically contains and sustains the entire world of beings; therefore harming her is a grave violation of dharma.
Bhishma is articulating a moral justification for refusing violence against a woman who is also his mother. He reasons from dharma and natural instinct (even animals refrain) to establish that matricide or harm to the mother is unthinkable, and he supports this with a maxim contrasting the father’s divine representative role with the mother’s all-encompassing, life-sustaining status.