Shloka 34

अहिंसा-प्रधान धर्मविचारः

Ahiṃsā as the Superior Dharma: Practical and Scriptural Reasoning

Devanagari script

यानश्रुबिन्दूनू पतितानपश्यं ये पाणिभ्यां धारितास्ते पुरस्तात्‌ । ते व्याधयो मानवान्‌ घोररूपा: प्राप्त काले कालयिष्यन्ति मृत्यो

Transliteration

yān aśrubindūn patitān apaśyaṁ ye pāṇibhyāṁ dhāritās te purastāt | te vyādhayo mānavān ghorarūpāḥ prāpta-kāle kālayiṣyanti mṛtyoḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma berkata: “Wahai Maut, tetes-tetes airmatamu yang dahulu kulihat jatuh, dan yang kutampung dengan kedua tanganku di hadapanku—ketika waktunya tiba, tetes-tetes itu akan menjelma menjadi penyakit-penyakit mengerikan dan menggiring manusia ke rahang Kematian.”

Word by Word

• {'aśru-bindu': 'a tear-drop', 'patita': 'fallen, dropped', 'apaśyam': 'I saw', 'pāṇibhyām': 'with (my) two hands', 'dhārita': 'held, retained, supported', 'purastāt': 'in front, before (me)

• formerly', 'vyādhi': 'disease, illness', 'mānava': 'human being, mankind', 'ghora-rūpa': 'terrible in form

• dreadful', 'prāpta-kāla': 'when the appointed time has come', 'kālayiṣyanti': 'they will cause to perish

• they will deliver to Death/Time', 'mṛtyoḥ': 'of Death'}

Speaker

पितामह उवाच

Characters & Entities

• पितामह (Bhīṣma)
• मृत्यु (Death)
• अश्रुबिन्दु (tear-drops)
• व्याधयः (diseases)
• मानवाः (human beings)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames disease and death as time-bound, inevitable forces: what is latent now will manifest when its appointed time arrives. Ethically, it urges sobriety and responsibility—human life is fragile, and one should live with dharma and awareness of impermanence rather than complacency.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma addresses Death directly, recalling a prior moment when he saw Death’s tear-drops fall and ‘held’ them. He declares that those very drops will, in due course, become terrifying diseases that carry humans to Death—linking cosmic forces (Mṛtyu/Kāla) with embodied suffering (vyādhi).