Shloka 28
राजधर्मः—प्रजापालनं दानयज्ञश्च
Royal Duty—Protection of Subjects, Generosity, and Sacrificial Discipline
नैकान्तविनिपातेन विचचारेह कश्षन । धर्मी गृही वा राजा वा ब्रह्मचारी यथा पुन:
naikāntavinipātena vicacāreha kaścana | dharmī gṛhī vā rājā vā brahmacārī yathā punaḥ ||
Bhishma dijo: En este mundo, nadie transita la vida por un camino absolutamente unilateral. Sea una persona justa, un cabeza de familia, un rey o un estudiante célibe, no es posible practicar el dharma de manera completa y sin mezcla; en la conducta humana surgen inevitablemente impulsos contrarios y caídas.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma teaches that in lived reality dharma is rarely, if ever, practiced in a perfectly pure and exclusive form. Every role—righteous person, householder, king, or celibate student—faces constraints, competing duties, and human weaknesses, so conduct tends to contain some mixture that falls short of an ideal.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma is advising Yudhishthira by emphasizing the complexity of moral life. He cautions against expecting absolute moral purity from any social role and frames dharma as something navigated amid practical limitations rather than followed as an unmixed, flawless rule.