Shloka 17
Adhyāya 214: Tapas Redefined—Perpetual Discipline, Hospitality, and the Ethics of Eating (तपः-निरूपणम्, विघसाशी-अतिथिप्रिय-धर्मः)
दश विद्याद् धमन्यो<त्र पज्चेन्द्रियगुणावहा: । याभि: सूक्ष्मा: प्रतायन्ते धमन्यो5न्या: सहस्रश:
daśa vidyād dhamanyo 'tra pañcendriyaguṇāvahāḥ | yābhiḥ sūkṣmāḥ pratāyante dhamanyo 'nyāḥ sahasraśaḥ ||
ビーシュマは言った。「この身には、五根の対象—声など—の性質を運び、感覚の把握を可能にする十の主要な脈道（ダマニー）があると知るべきである。さらにそれらとともに、無数の微細な脈道が全身に張り巡らされている。ここに示されるのは、人の身体が秩序ある機能の場であり、身体を規律をもって理解することが、倫理的な自己統御と心の安定を支えるという教えである。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a structured view of the body: ten principal channels convey the sensory qualities, while innumerable subtle channels pervade the body. Such knowledge supports self-mastery—understanding how perception arises helps one regulate desire, restraint, and ethical conduct.
In the Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and allied disciplines. Here he shifts into an explanatory, quasi-physiological account of the body’s internal channels and their role in sensory experience, as part of a broader teaching on self-knowledge and control.