Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 10
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
न भक्षयन्त्यतो मांसं तपोयुक्ता मनीषिण: । दोषांस्तु भक्षणे राजन् मांसस्येह निबोध मे
na bhakṣayanty ato māṁsaṁ tapoyuktā manīṣiṇaḥ | doṣāṁs tu bhakṣaṇe rājan māṁsasy eha nibodha me ||
ਭੀਸ਼ਮ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ: ਇਸ ਲਈ ਤਪੱਸਿਆ ਵਿੱਚ ਲੱਗੇ ਹੋਏ ਵਿਵੇਕੀ ਪੁਰਸ਼ ਮਾਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਖਾਂਦੇ। ਹੇ ਰਾਜਨ, ਹੁਣ ਇਸ ਲੋਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਮਾਸ-ਭੋਜਨ ਦੇ ਜੋ ਦੋਸ਼ ਹਨ, ਉਹ ਮੇਰੇ ਕੋਲੋਂ ਜਾਣ—ਸੁਣ।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma links spiritual discipline (tapas) and ethical discernment with abstaining from meat, and he frames meat-eating as carrying moral defects that he is about to enumerate.
In the Anushasana Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma addresses the king (Yudhishthira), transitioning into a detailed critique of meat consumption by announcing that he will explain its faults.