Shloka 42
अनुशासनपर्व अध्याय ९३ — तपस्, सदोपवास, विघसाशन, अतिथिप्रियता
Austerity, regulated fasting, residual-eating, and hospitality
यश्न श्राद्धे कुरुते संगतानि न देवयानेन पथा स याति | स वै मुक्त: पिप्पलं बन्धनाद् वा स्वर्गाल्लोकाच्च्यवते श्राद्धमित्र:
yaḥ śrāddhe kurute saṅgatāni na devayānena pathā sa yāti | sa vai muktaḥ pippalaṁ bandhanād vā svargāl lokāc cyavate śrāddha-mitraḥ ||
ビーシュマは言った。「シュラーダ（śrāddha）を、他者に食を施して友誼を取り結ぶための手段—すなわち私的な縁故づくり—に変える者は、死後、神々の道（devayāna）を進むことができない。その『シュラーダによって得た友』は、ピッパラ（aśvattha）の実が柄から離れれば地に落ちるように、天界からも堕ちる。祖霊供養は、清らかな意図と敬虔をもって行うべきであり、社交上の取引や利己的な人脈づくりとして行ってはならない。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Śrāddha should be performed as a duty toward ancestors and as a sacred act, not as a tool for personal gain. When the motive becomes social leverage—making friends or alliances through feeding—its spiritual fruit is lost, and the performer is said to fall from heavenly merit rather than attain the devayāna.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma, he warns about improper motives in ritual acts. He uses a simile: just as a pippala fruit detaches from its stalk and falls, so a person who instrumentalizes śrāddha for friendship becomes separated from the merit that would support ascent to higher realms.