Shloka 50
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
एवं न स्त्री न चैवाहं नाध्वगस्त्रिदशे श्वर: । अपराध्यति धर्मस्य प्रमादस्त्वपराध्यति
evaṁ na strī na caivāhaṁ nādhvagas tridāśeśvaraḥ | aparādhyati dharmasya pramādas tv aparādhyati ||
Bhīṣma dijo: «Así pues, ni la mujer tiene culpa, ni yo la tengo, ni la tiene el caminante—que vino disfrazado de brahmán—, es decir, Indra, señor de los dioses. El verdadero culpable es la negligencia respecto del dharma: fue mi descuido—que tomó la forma del injusto asesinato de una mujer—lo que se convirtió en la raíz de esta transgresión».
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse locates moral blame not in persons used as instruments or in external circumstances, but in pramāda—carelessness regarding dharma. Ethical failure arises from negligence, and one must own the lapse rather than scapegoat others.
Bhishma reflects on a wrongdoing connected with the killing of a woman. He declares that neither the woman, nor he as a person, nor Indra (who appeared as a traveller in brahmin guise) is intrinsically to blame; rather, the decisive cause of the offence was his own negligent lapse in adhering to dharma.