Shloka 27
राजधर्मप्रश्नः — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry into Rājadharma (Śānti-parva 56)
एवं चैव नरव्यात्र लोकत्रयविघातका: । निग्राह्मा एव सततं बाहुभ्यां ये स्युरीदूशा:
evaṃ caiva naravyāghra lokatraya-vighātakāḥ | nigrahyaiva satataṃ bāhubhyāṃ ye syur īdṛśāḥ puruṣasiṃha ||
Wika ni Bhishma: “Gayon din, O tigre sa mga tao: kahit isang Brahmin, kung siya’y bumangon na may layuning wasakin ang tatlong daigdig, ang gayong tao—kung siya’y tunay na ganyang uri—ay dapat pasukuin sa lakas ng bisig at laging panatilihing nasa pagpipigil.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Status or caste does not exempt one from restraint when one becomes a threat to universal welfare; the ruler’s duty is protection of the world-order, even if that requires forceful subjugation of a would-be destroyer.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction on rājadharma in the Śānti Parva, he addresses the listener as ‘naravyāghra/puruṣasiṃha’ and states that even a brāhmaṇa, if bent on catastrophic harm, should be overpowered and kept under control for the sake of the three worlds.