Shloka 10
कुण्डधारोपाख्यानम्
Kuṇḍadhāra-Upākhyāna: Dharma’s Superiority over Wealth and Desire
अत्र गाथा ब्रह्मगीता: कीर्तयन्ति पुराविद: । शुचेरश्रद्दधानस्य श्रद्दधानस्य चाशुचे:
atra gāthā brahmagītāḥ kīrtayanti purāvidaḥ | śucer aśraddadhānasya śraddadhānasya cāśuceḥ mīmāṃsitvobhayam devāḥ samam annam akalpayan |
Bhīṣma berkata: “Tentang hal ini, para penutur kisah-kisah purba melantunkan ‘Brahma-gītā’, syair tradisi yang dinyanyikan oleh Brahmā. Di sana dikatakan: para dewa, setelah menimbang kedua keadaan, pernah menetapkan persembahan makanan itu sama—baik berasal dari orang yang tampak suci namun tanpa śraddhā, maupun dari orang yang memiliki śraddhā namun tampak tidak suci.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
External purity (śuci/aśuci) and inner faith (śraddhā/aśraddhā) do not always align; therefore the value of an offering should be assessed through thoughtful discernment rather than by outward markers alone. The verse highlights a deliberate, evaluative approach (mīmāṃsitvā) to ethical and ritual judgment.
Bhīṣma introduces an authoritative ancient saying attributed to Brahmā, reported by tradition-knowers. In that saying, the gods are described as having deliberated and then treated two contrasting kinds of donors—pure-but-faithless and faithful-but-impure—as equivalent with respect to the food-offering, emphasizing a nuanced standard of evaluation.