Shloka 12

Chapter 78: Royal Responsibility for Wealth, Social Order, and the Protection of Dvijas

Kekaya Exemplum

Devanagari script

पूजिता: संविभक्ताश्व मृदव: सत्यवादिन: । ब्राह्मणा मे स्वकर्मस्था मामकान्तरमाविश:

Transliteration

pūjitāḥ saṁvibhaktāś ca mṛdavaḥ satyavādinaḥ | brāhmaṇā me svakarmasthā māmaka-antaraṁ āviśaḥ ||

Translation

Dans mon royaume, tous les brahmanes s’attachent à leurs devoirs prescrits ; ils sont doux de nature et véridiques en parole. Ils reçoivent leur subsistance de l’État et sont sans cesse honorés par moi. Si tel est l’ordre de mon pays, comment as-tu pu pénétrer jusqu’aux replis intérieurs de mon corps ?

Word by Word

• {'pūjitāḥ': 'honored, worshipped, treated with reverence', 'saṁvibhaktāḥ': 'properly allotted shares

• duly provided for/maintained', 'ca': 'and', 'mṛdavaḥ': 'gentle, mild-natured', 'satyavādinaḥ': 'truth-speakers

• those who speak truth', 'brāhmaṇāḥ': 'Brahmins

• members of the priestly/intellectual class', 'me': 'my', 'svakarmasthāḥ': 'standing in one’s own duty

• engaged in prescribed work (svadharma)', 'māmaka': 'belonging to me

• my own', 'antaram': 'interior

• inner space/within', 'āviśaḥ': 'you entered

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• Brahmins

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A ruler’s dharma includes honoring and materially supporting those devoted to their prescribed duties, especially Brahmins characterized by gentleness and truthfulness; yet Bhishma also implies that outward social order does not automatically prevent inner moral or spiritual affliction, prompting scrutiny of hidden causes.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhishma speaks to an addressed ‘you’ (a questioning presence, often framed as a personified affliction or moral consequence) and argues that his kingdom properly honors and maintains Brahmins who follow their duties; therefore he wonders how, despite such righteous governance, the troubling force could have entered his own body/inner being.