Shloka 50
Treasury Security, Protection of Informants, and the Kalakavṛkṣīya Exemplum (Śānti Parva 83)
तेनैवोग्रेन्धनेनैनं दावो दहति दारुण: । तथोपमा ह्ामात्यास्ते राज॑ंस्तान्ू परिशोधय
tenaivogrendhanenainaṁ dāvo dahati dāruṇaḥ | tathopamā hy amātyās te rājan tān pariśodhaya ||
Bhīṣma said: “By that very fierce fuel, a dreadful forest-fire burns even this great tree. In the same way, O King, your ministers have become like those dried creepers—nourished by your support, they have grown powerful enough to overrun you and then turn into the very fuel of your ruin. Therefore, purify your administration: examine, correct, and remove such corrupt officials before they consume the kingdom from within.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler must actively scrutinize and cleanse the administration. Officials who rise under royal patronage can become instruments of the king’s own destruction if left unchecked; therefore, corruption must be investigated and removed early.
Bhīṣma is instructing a king in righteous governance. Using the image of a great tree burned by a forest-fire fed by dried creepers that once grew upon it, he warns that the king’s own ministers—grown powerful under his shelter—may now endanger him and the realm, so they must be ‘purified’ through corrective action.