Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 15
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
भेरीमृदंगशब्दांश्व तन्त्रीशब्दांश्ष पुष्कलान् | निषेविष्यन्ति वै मन्दा मांसभक्षा: कथं नरा:
bherīmṛdaṅgaśabdāṁś ca tantrīśabdāṁś ca puṣkalān | niṣevīṣyanti vai mandā māṁsabhakṣāḥ kathaṁ narāḥ ||
ಭೀಷ್ಮನು ಹೇಳಿದನು—ಮಂದಬುದ್ಧಿಯುಳ್ಳ ಮಾಂಸಭಕ್ಷಕರು ಭೇರಿ-ಮೃದಂಗಗಳ ಧ್ವನಿಗಳನ್ನೂ, ತಂತ್ರೀವಾದ್ಯಗಳ ಸಮೃದ್ಧ ನಾದವನ್ನೂ ನಿಜವಾಗಿ ಹೇಗೆ ಆಸ್ವಾದಿಸಬಲ್ಲರು?
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma links ethical and dietary discipline with inner refinement: coarse habits (here, meat-eating and dullness) are portrayed as incompatible with genuine appreciation of elevated, cultured arts like refined music.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on conduct, he uses a rhetorical question to criticize certain dispositions and habits, suggesting that people of coarse taste are unlikely to truly relish or uphold refined cultural and moral practices.