Shloka 50
Treasury Security, Protection of Informants, and the Kalakavṛkṣīya Exemplum (Śānti Parva 83)
तेनैवोग्रेन्धनेनैनं दावो दहति दारुण: । तथोपमा ह्ामात्यास्ते राज॑ंस्तान्ू परिशोधय
tenaivogrendhanenainaṁ dāvo dahati dāruṇaḥ | tathopamā hy amātyās te rājan tān pariśodhaya ||
ビーシュマは言った。「その猛き薪ゆえに、恐るべき山火事はこの大樹さえ焼き尽くす。同じく王よ、汝の大臣たちは枯れ蔓のごとくなった――汝の支えに養われて勢力を増し、ついには汝を凌ぐほどとなり、そして汝の破滅の薪となる。ゆえに政を清めよ。精査し、正し、腐敗した官を除き、国が内より焼かれる前に手を下せ。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler must actively scrutinize and cleanse the administration. Officials who rise under royal patronage can become instruments of the king’s own destruction if left unchecked; therefore, corruption must be investigated and removed early.
Bhīṣma is instructing a king in righteous governance. Using the image of a great tree burned by a forest-fire fed by dried creepers that once grew upon it, he warns that the king’s own ministers—grown powerful under his shelter—may now endanger him and the realm, so they must be ‘purified’ through corrective action.