Shloka 18

Śuka’s Nirveda: Vyāsa’s Admonition on Dharma, Impermanence, and ‘Imperishable Wealth’ (अक्षय-धन)

Devanagari script

विरिक्तस्य यथा सम्यग्‌ घृतं भवति भेषजम्‌ | तथा निर्ह्ठतदोषस्य प्रेत्य धर्म: सुखावह:

Transliteration

viriktasya yathā samyag ghṛtaṃ bhavati bheṣajam | tathā nirhṛtadoṣasya pretya dharmaḥ sukhāvahaḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma dit : «De même que le beurre clarifié (ghṛta) devient réellement un remède pour celui dont le corps a été correctement purgé (virecana), de même le dharma ne devient source de bonheur dans l’au-delà que pour celui dont les fautes et les péchés ont été ôtés. La pratique religieuse ne porte un fruit doux que lorsque les impuretés intérieures qui la déforment ont été expulsées.»

Word by Word

• {'viriktasya': 'of one who has been purged

• cleansed by purgation (medical cleansing)', 'yathā': 'just as

• in the manner that', 'samyak': 'properly

• correctly', 'ghṛtam': 'ghee

• clarified butter', 'bhavati': 'becomes

• proves to be', 'bheṣajam': 'medicine

• remedy', 'tathā': 'so

• in the same way', 'nirhṛta-doṣasya': 'of one whose दोष (faults/impurities) have been removed/expelled', 'doṣa': 'fault

• (also bodily ‘humor’ in Ayurveda)', 'pretya': 'after death

• in the hereafter', 'dharmaḥ': 'dharma

• moral/religious duty', 'sukhāvahaḥ': 'bringing happiness

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• ghee (ghṛta)
• medicine (bheṣaja)
• purgation/cleansing (virecana implied)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Dharma yields happiness in the afterlife only when a person has first removed inner दोष—moral impurities such as sin, vice, and corrupt motives. Like food that becomes medicine only for a cleansed body, religious merit becomes truly beneficial only for a purified character.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Shanti Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma continues advising Yudhishthira on ethical life. Here he uses an Ayurvedic-style analogy—purgation followed by ghee as a remedy—to explain that spiritual practice works properly only after one has expelled moral and psychological impurities.