Shloka 36
Chapter 81: Trust, Allies, and the Qualifications of the King’s Artha-Secretary (अर्थसचिव)
आत्मानमेव जानाति निकृतं बान्धवैरपि । तेषु सन्ति गुणाश्रैव नैर्गुण्यं चैव लक्ष्यते,यदि सगे-सम्बन्धी भी किसी पुरुषका अपमान करें तो उसकी जातिके लोग उसे अपना ही अपमान समझते हैं। इस प्रकार कुट॒म्बीजनोंमें गुण भी हैं और अवगुण भी दिखायी देते हैं
ātmānam eva jānāti nikṛtaṃ bāndhavair api | teṣu santi guṇāś caiva nairguṇyaṃ caiva lakṣyate ||
Bhīṣma said: “A person recognizes his own humiliation even when it is inflicted by his own relatives. Among one’s kinsmen, virtues are indeed found, and faults too are clearly seen.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even within one’s own family, both virtue and vice are present; harm done by relatives is still harm, and dharma requires clear-eyed discernment rather than excusing wrongdoing because of kinship.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on righteous conduct and social ethics; here he remarks on the reality of family life—kinsmen can both support and injure, and their qualities and defects become visible in close relations.