Shloka 33
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
पज्चेन्द्रियपरित्यक्तं शुष्क॑ काष्ठत्वमागतम् | कस्माच्छोचथ तिष्ठन्तमात्मानं कि न शोचथ
pañcendriya-parityaktaṁ śuṣka-kāṣṭhatvam āgatam | kasmāc chocatha tiṣṭhantam ātmānaṁ kiṁ na śocatha ||
Sabi ni Bhishma: “Ang katawan ng batang ito, iniwan na ng limang pandama, ay naging gaya ng tuyong kahoy at nakahandusay sa harap ninyo. Bakit ninyo ito ipinagluluksa? Darating ang araw na ganyan din ang sasapitin ninyo—kung gayon, bakit hindi ninyo ipinagluluksa ang inyong sarili?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma urges dispassion and clear discernment: the body, once life and sense-function depart, is inert like dry wood. Since the same fate awaits all embodied beings, grief fixated on the corpse is misplaced; one should understand impermanence and turn toward dharmic wisdom rather than attachment.
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs others on dharma and right understanding after the war. Here he addresses mourners before a dead child’s body, challenging their sorrow by pointing to the body’s lifeless, sense-abandoned state and reminding them of their own inevitable mortality.