Shloka 52
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
हत्वा साध्वीं च नारीं च व्यसनित्वाच्च वासिताम् | भर्तव्यत्वेन भार्यां च को नु मां तारयिष्यति
hatvā sādhvīṁ ca nārīṁ ca vyasanitvāc ca vāsitām | bhartavyatvena bhāryāṁ ca ko nu māṁ tārayiṣyati
Bhīṣma berkata: “Setelah aku membunuh seorang wanita yang suci, dan juga seorang wanita yang telah didorong ke jurang kehancuran hingga hidup dalam derita, dan setelah aku mengambil seorang isteri hanya sebagai beban yang perlu ditanggung—siapakah, sesungguhnya, akan menyelamatkan aku?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral accountability: grievous harm done to the vulnerable and treating marriage as mere maintenance rather than dharmic partnership are presented as burdens of wrongdoing, prompting the urgent question of who can ‘deliver’ one from the consequences—implying the need for repentance, restitution, and dharmic conduct.
Bhishma speaks in a confessional, self-questioning tone, listing acts he regards as ethically weighty—violence against women and a failure to honor the deeper duties of marriage—and asks who can rescue him from the resulting moral peril.