Shloka 29
Kṣātra-dharma in Campaign and Battle: Protection, Purification, and the Ideal Warrior’s End (क्षात्रधर्मः—अभियानयुद्धे रक्षणदानशुद्धिः)
शूरो हि काममन्युभ्यामाविष्टो युध्यते भृशम् । हन्यमानानि गात्राणि परैर्नैवावबुध्यते
śūro hi kāma-manyubhyām āviṣṭo yudhyate bhṛśam | hanyamānāni gātrāṇi parair naivāvabudhyate ||
Bhīṣma said: “A true warrior, seized by the desire for victory and by wrath, fights with tremendous force. Even when his limbs are being struck and mangled by enemies, he scarcely registers it—so overpowering are passion and anger in the heat of battle.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights how desire (kāma) and anger (manyu) can overpower awareness, driving a warrior to extreme action even amid severe injury—an ethical-psychological observation about the forces that propel violence and endurance in war.
In Bhishma’s instruction during the Śānti Parva, he describes the battlefield mindset of a heroic kṣatriya: possessed by the wish to win and by rage toward the enemy, he fights fiercely and scarcely notices his own wounds.