Shloka 14
Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)
तस्मिन्नपि महाबाहो प्रादुर्भूते महात्मनि । तमसा पूर्वजो जज्ञे मधुर्नाम महासुर:,उन महाबाहु महात्मा ब्रह्माजीकी भी उत्पत्ति हो जानेपर वहाँ तमोगुणसे मधुनामक महान् असुर प्रकट हुआ, जो असुरोंका पूर्वज था
tasminn api mahābāho prādurbhūte mahātmani | tamasā pūrvajo jajñe madhur nāma mahāsuraḥ ||
Bhishma berkata: “Wahai yang berlengan perkasa, bahkan setelah makhluk berhati luhur itu (Brahmā) menampakkan diri, dari asas kegelapan (tamas) lahirlah seorang Asura besar bernama Madhu, yang menjadi leluhur para Asura.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral and cosmic disorder as arising from tamas (darkness/ignorance). Even alongside the manifestation of a great-souled creative principle, tamasic forces can emerge, becoming sources of further adharma; thus vigilance and cultivation of sattva are implied.
Bhīṣma describes an early cosmogonic episode: after the appearance of a great being (understood in the tradition as Brahmā or a primordial creator), a powerful Asura named Madhu is born from tamas and becomes an ancestral figure among the Asuras.