Shloka 57
यथा लवणमम्भोभिराप्लुतं प्रविलीयते । प्रायश्षित्तहतं पापं तथा सद्यः प्रणश्यति,जैसे नमककी डली जलमें डालनेसे गल जाती है, उसी प्रकार प्रायश्चित्त करनेसे तत्काल पापका नाश हो जाता है
yathā lavaṇam ambhobhir āplutaṁ pravilīyate | prāyaścittahataṁ pāpaṁ tathā sadyaḥ praṇaśyati ||
जशी मिठाची गाठ पाण्यात टाकताच विरघळते, तशी प्रायश्चित्ताने आघात झालेली पापे तत्क्षणी नष्ट होतात.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma teaches that sincere prāyaścitta (expiation/atonement) has immediate purifying power: wrongdoing (pāpa) can be neutralized swiftly when one undertakes the appropriate corrective discipline.
In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhīṣma is advising Yudhiṣṭhira on moral and religious conduct, using a vivid simile—salt dissolving in water—to explain how expiation eradicates sin.