Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 15
Dvaipāyana–Kīṭa Saṃvāda: Karmic Memory, Fear of Death, and Embodied Pleasure
भेरीमृदंगशब्दांश्व तन्त्रीशब्दांश्ष पुष्कलान् | निषेविष्यन्ति वै मन्दा मांसभक्षा: कथं नरा:
bherīmṛdaṅgaśabdāṁś ca tantrīśabdāṁś ca puṣkalān | niṣevīṣyanti vai mandā māṁsabhakṣāḥ kathaṁ narāḥ ||
Wika ni Bhīṣma: “Paano tunay na malulugod ang mga taong mapurol ang isip at kumakain ng karne sa saganang tunog ng mga tambol na kettledrum at mṛdaṅga, at sa masaganang himig ng mga instrumentong may kuwerdas?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma links ethical and dietary discipline with inner refinement: coarse habits (here, meat-eating and dullness) are portrayed as incompatible with genuine appreciation of elevated, cultured arts like refined music.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on conduct, he uses a rhetorical question to criticize certain dispositions and habits, suggesting that people of coarse taste are unlikely to truly relish or uphold refined cultural and moral practices.