Shloka 23
Śulka, Kanyā, and Dauhitra-Riktha: Discourse on Bride-Price and Inheritance Rights (शुल्क-कन्या-दौहित्र-रिक्थविचारः)
मिथुनस्यास्य कि मे स्यात् कृतं पापं यथा गति: । अनिष्टा सर्वभूतानां कीर्तितानेन मेडद्य वै
mithunasyāsya ki me syāt kṛtaṃ pāpaṃ yathā gatiḥ | aniṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṃ kīrtitānena medady vai ||
Wika ni Bhīṣma: “Anong kasalanan ang nagawa ko upang danasin ang gayong kapalaran—isang kapalarang nakapipinsala sa lahat ng nilalang—katulad ng kapalarang inilarawan sa harap ko ngayon para sa magkaparis na lalaki at babae?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds moral causality: one’s future ‘gati’ (destiny or post-mortem state) is shaped by one’s actions (pāpa/adharma). Bhishma’s question frames an ethical inquiry into what kinds of wrongdoing lead to a universally harmful, inauspicious fate.
Bhishma, responding to a description he has just heard about the grim fate allotted to a certain man–woman pair, reflects aloud and asks what sin could cause him to incur a similar, universally inauspicious destiny.