Shloka 138
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
शय्यार्ध तस्य चाप्यत्र स्त्रीपूर्वमधितिष्ठति । तदनेन प्रसड़ेन फलेनैवेह युज्यते,उस शगय्याके भी आधे भागपर राजाकी स्त्रीका अधिकार होता है; अतः इस प्रसंगसे वह बहुत अल्प फलका ही भागी होता है
śayyārdhaṃ tasya cāpy atra strī pūrvam adhitiṣṭhati | tad anena prasaṅgena phalenaiveha yujyate ||
Bhīṣma berkata: “Di sini, bahkan separuh daripada katil itu terlebih dahulu berada di bawah hak yang wajar milik isteri. Maka, dengan pertimbangan ini juga, dia hanya berhak kepada bahagian manfaat yang amat kecil.”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma frames an ethical-legal principle of entitlement: within household arrangements, the wife has a prior and protected claim; therefore a man’s claim to the ‘fruit’ (benefit) in such a context is limited, not absolute.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on dharma, he uses a concrete domestic example—rights over a bed—to illustrate how precedence of claim affects the distribution of benefit (phala), concluding that the person in question receives only a small share.