Shloka 20
अत्रेः तपोबलप्रकाशः तथा च्यवनस्य सोमाधिकारः
Atri’s Illumination by Tapas; Cyavana and Soma-Entitlement
यह प्रायश्रित्त करनेके बाद उसे सिद्धि प्राप्त होती है और वह भारी आपत्तिमें कभी नहीं पड़ता है ।। यस्तु शूद्रे: समश्रीयाद् ब्राह्मणो5प्येक भोजने । अशौचं विधिवत् तस्य शौचमत्र विधीयते
yaḥ prāyaścittaṃ kṛtvā tataḥ siddhiṃ prāpnoti sa ca gurv-āpadi kadācana na patati. yaḥ tu śūdreṣu samaśrayed brāhmaṇo 'py eka-bhojane, aśaucaṃ vidhivat tasya śaucam atra vidhīyate.
Bhīṣma bersabda: Setelah melaksanakan prāyaścitta (penebusan/penyucian) yang ditetapkan, seseorang memperoleh kesucian dan kejayaan, serta tidak jatuh ke dalam kesusahan yang berat. Namun jika bahkan seorang brāhmaṇa, dalam satu jamuan makan, bergaul setara dengan para śūdra, maka dianggap timbul ketidak-sucian baginya; oleh itu, di sini diperintahkan tata cara penyucian yang benar menurut śāstra.
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that faults leading to ritual impurity can be remedied through properly performed prāyaścitta, restoring śauca and preventing further downfall; it also underscores that certain forms of social mixing in a shared meal context are treated by dharma-text logic as generating aśauca for a brāhmaṇa, requiring prescribed purification.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma. Here he is laying out rules about impurity and its removal, specifying that when a brāhmaṇa incurs aśauca through particular conduct (such as equal association with śūdras in a shared meal), the text prescribes the appropriate cleansing rite.