Shloka 17
भीष्मविक्रमदर्शनं तथा क्रौञ्चारुणव्यूहविधानम् | Bhīṣma’s Ascendancy and the Organization of the Krauñcāruṇa Formation
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्ााभारत भीष्मपर्वके श्रीमद्भगवद््गीतापव॑किे अन्तर्गत ब्रह्मविद्या और योगशासत्ररूप श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतोपनिषद्: श्रीकृष्णाजुन-संवादमें श्रद्धात्रयविभागयोग नामक सत्रहवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ,यस्य नाहंकृतो भावो बुद्धिर्यस्य न लिप्यते । हत्वापि स इमॉल्लोकान्न हन्ति न निबध्यते जिस पुरुषके अन्तः:करणमें “मैं कर्ता हूँ" ऐसा भाव नहीं है* तथा जिसकी बुद्धि सांसारिक पदार्थोंमें और कर्मोमें लिपायमान नहीं होती,“ वह पुरुष इन सब लोकोंको मारकर भी वास्तवमें न तो मारता है और न पापसे बँधता है;
yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhir yasya na lipyate | hatvāpi sa imāṁl lokān na hanti na nibadhyate ||
He in whom there is no egoistic notion—“I am the doer”—and whose understanding is not tainted or attached to worldly objects and actions: even if he were to slay these beings, in truth he neither kills nor becomes bound by sin. The verse frames moral responsibility in terms of inner agency: action performed without ego and without clinging does not generate binding guilt.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral bondage arises from egoistic doership and attachment. When the inner instrument lacks the ‘I am the doer’ notion and the intellect is not stained by clinging, actions do not produce binding sin or karmic fetters—even in extreme contexts like warfare.
In the war-setting discourse, the teaching addresses the anxiety of killing: it distinguishes outward action from inward culpability. The verse explains that the decisive factor is the agent’s inner stance—ego and attachment versus selfless, untainted discernment.