Shloka 86
पतिहीना तु का नारी सती जीवितुमुत्सहेत् । “नाथ! अब तुम्हारे बिना यहाँ इस जीवनसे भी क्या प्रयोजन है? ऐसी कौन सी पतिव्रता स्त्री होगी, जो पतिके बिना जीवित रह सकेगी?
patihīnā tu kā nārī satī jīvitum utsahet |
Wika ni Bhīṣma: “Anong babaeng marangal, kapag naulila sa asawa, ang makapipilit pang magpatuloy sa buhay? Sa diwa ng pativratā, ang asawa ang pangunahing sandigan at layon ng babae; kaya ang pagkabalo ay nagiging isang krisis na moral at damdamin sa loob ng gayong pagpapahalaga.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse voices a classical dharma-ideal in which a wife’s fidelity and life-orientation are centered on her husband; it portrays the loss of the husband as so decisive that a ‘satī’ is imagined as scarcely able to continue living, highlighting the intensity of conjugal devotion as a moral-emotional norm in the text’s discourse.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction within the Śānti Parva, he makes a pointed rhetorical statement about the condition of a husbandless woman, using the figure of the ‘satī’ to emphasize how grievous and destabilizing widowhood is considered under the prevailing social-ethical framework being discussed.