Shloka 46

Tapas, Tīrtha, and Moral Rehabilitation (Śānti-parva 148)

Devanagari script

दत्त: स्वमांसं दहता कपोतेन महात्मना । “अच्छे-अच्छे कर्मोंको छोड़कर मैंने पक्षियोंको मारने और फँसानेका धंधा अपना लिया है। मुझ क्रूर और कुकर्मीको महात्मा कबूतरने अपने शरीरकी आहुति दे अपना मांस अर्पित किया है। इसमें संदेह नहीं कि इस अपूर्व त्यागके द्वारा उसने मुझे धिक्कारते हुए धर्माचरण करनेका आदेश दिया है

Transliteration

dattaḥ svamāṁsaṁ dahatā kapotena mahātmanā |

Translation

Бхишма сказал: «Великодушный голубь, сгорая в огне, предложил собственную плоть. Оставив достойные занятия, я избрал жестокий промысел — убивать и ловить птиц. Мне — жестокому и грешному — благородный голубь принес в жертву своё тело и подал свою плоть. Нет сомнения: этим небывалым самопожертвованием он, словно укоряя меня, повелел мне следовать дхарме».

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'dattaḥ', 'definition': 'given, offered'}, {'term': 'sva-māṁsam', 'definition': 'one’s own flesh'}, {'term': 'dahatā', 'definition': 'while burning

• being scorched (in fire)'}, {'term': 'kapotena', 'definition': 'by the pigeon'}, {'term': 'mahātmanā', 'definition': 'by the great-souled/noble one'}, {'term': 'āhuti', 'definition': 'oblation, sacrificial offering'}, {'term': 'dharma-ācaraṇa', 'definition': 'practice/observance of dharma (righteous conduct)'}, {'term': 'dhikkāra', 'definition': 'censure, reproach (as moral condemnation)'}, {'term': 'kṛūra', 'definition': 'cruel, violent'}, {'term': 'kukarmī', 'definition': 'evil-doer

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• pigeon (kapota)
• fire (implied by dahatā)
• flesh (māṁsa)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even a small creature can embody supreme dharma: self-sacrifice and compassion can shame and reform a cruel person, turning him back toward righteous conduct.

What is happening in the narrative?

A pigeon, burning in a fire, offers its own flesh as an oblation. The speaker reflects that he had taken up the cruel livelihood of trapping and killing birds, and he interprets the pigeon’s extraordinary act as a reproach and a moral command to follow dharma.