Shloka 52

मृदु-तीक्ष्ण-नीति तथा दुष्टलक्षण-विज्ञानम्

Measured Policy and the Recognition of Malicious Disposition

Devanagari script

इति दुष्टस्य विज्ञानमुक्त ते सुरसत्तम । निशम्य शास्त्रतत्त्वार्थ यथावदमरेश्व॒र,सुरश्रेष्ठ! देवेश्वर! शास्त्रके सिद्धान्तका यथावत्‌ रूपसे विचार करके ये मैंने तुमसे दुष्ट पुरुषकी पहचान करानेवाले लक्षण बताये हैं

Transliteration

iti duṣṭasya vijñānam ukta te surasattama | niśamya śāstra-tattvārthaṃ yathāvad amareśvara ||

Translation

Bhishma berkata: “Demikianlah, wahai yang terbaik di antara para dewa, telah kujelaskan kepadamu daya pembeda untuk mengenali orang jahat. Setelah menimbang dengan saksama makna sejati ajaran śāstra, wahai penguasa para abadi, telah kupaparkan tanda-tanda yang menyingkap tabiat si bejat.”

Word by Word

• {'iti': 'thus

• in this manner (concluding particle)', 'duṣṭasya': 'of the wicked/corrupt person', 'vijñānam': 'discernment

• diagnostic understanding', 'uktam/ukta': 'said

• declared', 'te': 'to you', 'surasattama': 'best among the gods', 'niśamya': 'having heard

• having considered attentively', 'śāstra': 'authoritative teaching

• normative treatise', 'tattva': 'truth

• reality', 'artha': 'meaning

• purport', 'śāstra-tattvārtham': 'the true purport/principled meaning of the śāstras', 'yathāvat': 'properly

• as it should be', 'amareśvara': 'lord of the immortals (an epithet for a deity)'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• surasattama (addressed deity)
• amareśvara (addressed deity)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhīṣma emphasizes that moral discernment—recognizing the marks of a wicked person—should be grounded in the properly understood purport of śāstra, not in impulse or prejudice.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma concludes a section of instruction by telling the addressed divine listener that he has finished explaining the indicators by which a corrupt person is identified, based on correct reflection on scriptural principles.