Shloka 16
अनुशासनपर्व अध्याय ९३ — तपस्, सदोपवास, विघसाशन, अतिथिप्रियता
Austerity, regulated fasting, residual-eating, and hospitality
ज्ञानपूर्व तु ये तेभ्य: प्रयच्छन्त्यल्पबुद्धय: । पुरीषं भुज्जते तेषां पितर: प्रेत्य निश्चय:
jñānapūrvaṃ tu ye tebhyaḥ prayacchanty alpabuddhayaḥ | purīṣaṃ bhuñjate teṣāṃ pitaraḥ pretya niścayaḥ ||
Wika ni Bhishma: “Ang mga taong kapos ang pag-unawa na may kamalayan pang nag-aalay ng handog sa śrāddha sa gayong mga Brahmanang dumudungis sa hanay ng kainan—ang mga ninuno ng mga nagkakaloob na iyon, pagkalipas ng kamatayan, ay tiyak na hahantong sa pagkain ng karumihan.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Charity and ritual offerings must be guided by discernment: knowingly giving śrāddha food to unworthy, corrupt recipients destroys the intended merit and instead yields a painful, degrading result for one’s ancestors.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma, he warns about improper conduct in śrāddha: if a person, despite knowing the recipients are pāṅkti-dūṣaka (ritually and socially corrupt), still feeds them in the ancestral rite, the pitṛs do not receive sanctified benefit; the outcome is described as the pitṛs consuming filth in the afterlife.