Shloka 25
Chapter 78: Royal Responsibility for Wealth, Social Order, and the Protection of Dvijas
Kekaya Exemplum
दानेन विद्यामभिवान् छयामि सत्येनार्थ ब्राह्मणानां च गुप्त्या शुश्रूषया चापि गुरूनुपैमि न मे भयं विद्यते राक्षसेभ्य:
dānena vidyām abhivāñchayāmi satyenārthaṃ brāhmaṇānāṃ ca guptyā | śuśrūṣayā cāpi gurūn upaimi na me bhayaṃ vidyate rākṣasebhyaḥ ||
Wika ni Bhishma: “Sa pamamagitan ng pagkakawanggawa, hinahangad kong makamit ang tunay na karunungan; sa pamamagitan ng katapatan at pag-iingat sa mga Brahmin, hinahangad ko ang minimithing wakas—ang kabutihang-loob na bunga at ang marapat na pagpasok sa mas mataas na mga daigdig. At sa pamamagitan ng paglilingkod at masusing pagsunod, lumalapit ako sa aking mga guro upang sila’y mapasaya. Kaya’t wala akong takot sa mga rākṣasa.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma links fearlessness to dharmic conduct: charity that supports learning, unwavering truthfulness, protection of Brahmins, and devoted service to one’s teachers. These virtues generate spiritual merit and inner strength, making one unshaken even by hostile forces symbolized by rākṣasas.
In Shanti Parva’s instruction on righteous living, Bhishma speaks in the first person to illustrate a disciplined ethical program—giving, truth, safeguarding the worthy, and serving gurus—and concludes that such a life removes fear, even of dangerous beings like rākṣasas.