Shloka 10
Kṣātra-dharma in Campaign and Battle: Protection, Purification, and the Ideal Warrior’s End (क्षात्रधर्मः—अभियानयुद्धे रक्षणदानशुद्धिः)
ब्राह्मणार्थे समुत्पन्ने योडरिभि: सृत्य युध्यति । आत्मानं यूपमुत्सृज्य स यज्ञोडनन्तदक्षिण:
brāhmaṇārthe samutpanne yo 'ribhiḥ sṛtya yudhyati | ātmānaṃ yūpam utsṛjya sa yajño 'nantadakṣiṇaḥ ||
ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਦੀ ਰੱਖਿਆ ਲਈ ਜਦੋਂ ਸੰਕਟ ਉੱਠੇ, ਜੋ ਅੱਗੇ ਵਧ ਕੇ ਵੈਰੀਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਯੁੱਧ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਸਰੀਰ ਨੂੰ ਯੂਪ (ਯੱਗ-ਸਤੰਭ) ਵਾਂਗ ਅਰਪਣ ਕਰ ਦਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਉਸ ਦਾ ਉਹ ਤਿਆਗ ਅਨੰਤ ਦਕਸ਼ਿਣਾਵਾਂ ਵਾਲੇ ਯੱਗ ਦੇ ਸਮਾਨ ਹੈ।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Defending a Brahmin in a righteous crisis—even at the cost of one’s own life—is treated as a supreme religious act: a living yajña whose ‘dakṣiṇā’ is limitless. The verse equates ethical self-offering for dharma with the highest sacrificial merit.
Bhishma is instructing on dharma in the Shanti Parva. He describes a scenario where enemies threaten a Brahmin; the protector who advances to fight and gives up his body is praised as performing a sacrifice, with the body likened to the yūpa (sacrificial post).