Shloka 24
राजधर्मः—प्रजापालनं दानयज्ञश्च
Royal Duty—Protection of Subjects, Generosity, and Sacrificial Discipline
नित्यं स्वाहा स्वधा नित्यं चोभे मानुषदैवते । पुत्रेष्वाशासते नित्यं पितरो दैवतानि च
nityaṁ svāhā svadhā nityaṁ cobhe mānuṣadaivate | putreṣv āśāsate nityaṁ pitaro daivatāni ca ||
Bhīṣma said: “The invocations ‘svāhā’ and ‘svadhā’ are ever to be maintained—these two correspond to the divine and the human (ancestral) spheres. Therefore, the gods and the ancestors continually look to their descendants with expectation: that they will regularly uphold sacrifice for the devas and śrāddha offerings for the pitṛs.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
One should regularly sustain both streams of obligation: offerings to the gods (svāhā, deva-yajña) and offerings to the ancestors (svadhā, śrāddha). These rites are presented as ongoing duties through which descendants repay and uphold the divine and ancestral orders.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma teaches Yudhishthira about household and social duties. Here he emphasizes that devas and pitṛs depend upon descendants’ regular ritual acts—yajña and śrāddha—and thus ‘expect’ these duties to be maintained.