Shloka 19
धर्म्यविजय-नियमाः
Rules for Dharmic Victory in Kṣatriya Engagement
स वर्धमान: स्तेयेन पाप: पापे प्रसज्जति । न धर्मोडस्तीति मन्वान: शुचीनवहसन्निव
sa vardhamānaḥ steyena pāpaḥ pāpe prasajjati | na dharmo 'stīti manvānaḥ śucīn avahasann iva |
Bhīṣma said: “A sinful man who grows through theft becomes ever more entangled in sin. Convinced that ‘there is no such thing as dharma,’ he mocks the pure and virtuous. His faith in righteousness disappears, and by sin alone he moves toward ruin—imagining himself godlike and beyond decay, yet in the end he is bound by Varuṇa’s nooses.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Prosperity gained through theft strengthens a person’s attachment to wrongdoing; denial of dharma leads to contempt for the virtuous and culminates in inevitable restraint and ruin—symbolized by being caught in Varuṇa’s pāśas (nooses).
In Bhīṣma’s instruction during the Śānti Parva, he describes the psychological and ethical downward spiral of a thief: success in stealing breeds further sin, erodes reverence for dharma, and ends in punishment and destruction.