Shloka 46
जनक–पराशर संवादः — वर्ण-गोत्र-धर्मविचारः
Janaka–Parāśara: Varṇa, Gotra, and Dharma Inquiry
यत् करोति बहुदोषमेकत- स्तच्च दूषयति यत्पुरा कृतम् । नाप्रियं तदुभयं करोत्यसौ यच्च दूषयति यत् करोति च
yat karoti bahudoṣam ekataḥ tac ca dūṣayati yat purā kṛtam | nāpriyaṃ tad ubhayaṃ karoty asau yac ca dūṣayati yat karoti ca ||
Bhishma said: “Whatever a man does in a state of ignorance—actions laden with many faults—and whatever he later condemns as wrong, even his own deeds done in the past: once knowledge arises, he does not commit either kind. He neither performs what is blameworthy nor engages in the twin pattern of doing a tainted act and then censuring it.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Ignorance leads to faulty actions and to the habit of blaming—both one’s past deeds and objectionable deeds in general—while still acting under the same defects. With the rise of true knowledge, a person abandons both: he neither performs blameworthy acts nor remains trapped in the cycle of doing wrong and then condemning it.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma and right conduct, Bhishma explains to Yudhishthira how inner transformation occurs: when ignorance is replaced by knowledge, one’s behavior changes, and the earlier patterns of defective action and reactive censure no longer persist.