Shloka 53
“जिसे मैंने पत्नीके रूपमें अपने घरमें आश्रय दिया था। जो एक सती-साध्वी नारी थी और भार्या होनेके कारण मुझसे भरण-पोषण पानेकी अधिकारिणी थी, उसीका मैंने प्रमादरूपी व्यसनके वशीभूत होनेके कारण वध करा डाला। अब इस पापसे मेरा कौन उद्धार करेगा? ।। अन्तरेण मया5ज्ञप्तश्विरकारीत्युदारधी: । यद्यद्य चिरकारी स्यात् स मां त्रायेत पातकात्,'परंतु मैंने उदारबुद्धि चिरकारीको उसकी माताके वधके लिये आज्ञा दी थी। यदि उसने इस कार्यमें विलम्ब करके अपने नामको सार्थक किया हो तो वही मुझे स्त्रीह॒त्याके पापसे बचा सकता है
antareṇa mayājñaptaś cirakārīty udāradhīḥ | yadyady cirakārī syāt sa māṃ trāyet pātakāt ||
भीष्म उवाच—या मया भार्यारूपेण स्वगृहे शरणं दत्ता, या सती साध्वी च नारी, भार्या च सती मत्तो भरणपोषणस्याधिकारिणी; तामहं प्रमादरूपव्यसनवशीभूतो वधाय कारितवान्। अस्मात् पापात् मां कः समुद्धरिष्यति? अपि च मया पूर्वं उदारधीः चिरकारी स्वमातरं हन्तुमाज्ञप्तः। यदि स नामानुरूपं तस्मिन्कर्मणि चिरं विलम्बितवान्, स एव मां स्त्रीवधमहापातकात् त्रातुमर्हति।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Heedlessness (pramāda) can drive even a person bound by dharma into catastrophic wrongdoing; moral recovery requires honest acknowledgement of guilt and a turn toward deliberation and restraint. The verse highlights the ethical value of pausing before irreversible violence—delay born of thoughtful discernment can become a form of protection from grave sin.
Bhishma recounts a confession of having caused the death of a virtuous wife under the sway of negligence, and he wonders who can rescue him from that sin. He then recalls that he once ordered Cirakārī to kill his own mother; if Cirakārī delayed and did not carry out the command, Bhishma sees him as a possible means of deliverance from the burden of the sin of killing a woman.