Shloka 45
मृत्यु-काल-प्रबोधनम् (Instruction on Mortality, Time, and Truth) — Mahābhārata, Śānti-parva 169
त॑ दृष्टवा पुरुषादाभमपध्वस्तं क्षयागतम् | अभिज्ञाय द्विजो व्रीडन्निदं वाक्यमथाब्रवीत्
taṁ dṛṣṭvā puruṣādābham apadhvastaṁ kṣayāgatam | abhijñāya dvijo vrīḍann idaṁ vākyam athābravīt |
Sinabi ni Bhīṣma: “Nang makita siya—na wari’y kumakain ng tao, wasak at nalugmok sa sukdulang pagbagsak—nakilala siya ng brāhmaṇa. Sa hiya, saka niya sinabi ang mga salitang ito.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights ethical accountability: when a person—especially one expected to embody restraint and purity—appears degraded and violence-marked, society’s moral conscience is stirred. Recognition leads to shame and corrective speech, implying that dharma includes acknowledging fallenness and confronting it with principled admonition.
A brāhmaṇa sees someone arrive in a dreadful, fallen condition—so fearsome as to resemble a man-eater. He recognizes the person, feels ashamed (at the person’s state and its implications), and begins to speak, setting up a reprimand or moral instruction in the following lines.