Shloka 21
धर्म्यविजय-नियमाः
Rules for Dharmic Victory in Kṣatriya Engagement
महादृतिरिवाध्मात: सुकृते नैव वर्तते । ततः: समूलो द्वियते नदीं कूलादिव द्रुम:
mahādṛtir ivādhmātaḥ sukṛte naiva vartate | tataḥ samūlo dhriyate nadīṁ kūlād iva drumaḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Like a great leather bag swollen by being blown full, the sinner becomes puffed up by his own wrongdoing and does not turn toward meritorious action. Then, like a tree standing on a riverbank that is torn out with its roots and swept into the stream, that sinner too is uprooted and destroyed completely.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Wrongdoing inflates the sinner’s pride and dulls the impulse toward merit; such a life becomes unstable and ends in total ruin—like a tree undermined at the riverbank and uprooted with its roots.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction (Śānti Parva), he uses two vivid similes—an inflated leather bag and a riverbank tree swept away—to warn that persistent sin leads to moral stagnation and eventual complete destruction.