Shloka 23
Śulka, Kanyā, and Dauhitra-Riktha: Discourse on Bride-Price and Inheritance Rights (शुल्क-कन्या-दौहित्र-रिक्थविचारः)
मिथुनस्यास्य कि मे स्यात् कृतं पापं यथा गति: । अनिष्टा सर्वभूतानां कीर्तितानेन मेडद्य वै
mithunasyāsya ki me syāt kṛtaṃ pāpaṃ yathā gatiḥ | aniṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṃ kīrtitānena medady vai ||
ビーシュマは言った。「私はいかなる罪を犯したというのか。あらゆる生きとし生けるものにとって不吉なるその運命を、今日この場で語られたこの男女の一対に与えられる運命のごとく、私も受けねばならぬのか。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds moral causality: one’s future ‘gati’ (destiny or post-mortem state) is shaped by one’s actions (pāpa/adharma). Bhishma’s question frames an ethical inquiry into what kinds of wrongdoing lead to a universally harmful, inauspicious fate.
Bhishma, responding to a description he has just heard about the grim fate allotted to a certain man–woman pair, reflects aloud and asks what sin could cause him to incur a similar, universally inauspicious destiny.