Shloka 5
Adhyāya 241: Guṇa-sṛṣṭi, Kṣetrajña-sākṣitva, and Śama through Ātma-jñāna (गुणसृष्टिः, क्षेत्रज्ञसाक्षित्वं, शमः)
अस्ति धर्म इति प्रोक्त नास्तीत्यत्रैव यो वदेत् । तस्य पक्षस्य सदृशमिदं मम भवेद् व्यथा
asti dharma iti prokta nāstīty atraiva yo vadet | tasya pakṣasya sadṛśam idaṁ mama bhaved vyathā ||
Dijo Bhishma: “Las Escrituras declaran: ‘El dharma existe’. Pero si alguien afirmara aquí mismo: ‘El dharma no existe’, la angustia que nacería en el creyente al oírlo—una angustia propia del bando del creyente—de igual modo esta cuestión sobre la jerarquía entre acción y conocimiento se vuelve para mí causa de aflicción.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma underscores that denying the existence of dharma contradicts authoritative teaching and causes deep moral-spiritual distress; he likens his own discomfort over debates on the hierarchy of action and knowledge to the pain a believer feels when dharma is negated.
In the Shanti Parva’s instructional setting, Bhishma is responding to a philosophical query; before addressing the issue of the relative status of karma (action) and vidyā/jñāna (knowledge), he remarks that such disputation troubles him much like hearing an outright denial of dharma.