Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 9
Kīṭopākhyāna: Prajā-pālana as Kṣatra-vrata and the Attainment of Brāhmaṇya
शुक्राच्च तात सम्भूतिर्मांसस्येह न संशय: । भक्षणे तु महान् दोषो निवृत्त्या पुण्यमुच्यते
śukrāc ca tāta sambhūtir māṁsasy eha na saṁśayaḥ | bhakṣaṇe tu mahān doṣo nivṛttyā puṇyam ucyate, tāta ||
तात! इसमें संशय नहीं कि मांस की उत्पत्ति वीर्य से होती है। पर मांस-भक्षण में महान दोष है; इसलिए उससे निवृत्त होना ही पुण्य कहा गया है, पुत्र।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Meat-eating is presented as ethically blameworthy (doṣa), and abstaining from it (nivṛtti) is praised as a source of religious merit (puṇya).
In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhīṣma addresses a listener as “tāta” and argues against meat consumption, grounding the admonition in a view of meat’s bodily origin and concluding that virtue lies in refraining.