Shloka 10
Kṣātra-dharma in Campaign and Battle: Protection, Purification, and the Ideal Warrior’s End (क्षात्रधर्मः—अभियानयुद्धे रक्षणदानशुद्धिः)
ब्राह्मणार्थे समुत्पन्ने योडरिभि: सृत्य युध्यति । आत्मानं यूपमुत्सृज्य स यज्ञोडनन्तदक्षिण:
brāhmaṇārthe samutpanne yo 'ribhiḥ sṛtya yudhyati | ātmānaṃ yūpam utsṛjya sa yajño 'nantadakṣiṇaḥ ||
Wika ni Bhishma: Kapag sumiklab ang panganib alang-alang sa pag-iingat sa isang Brahmana, ang taong humaharap at nakikipagdigma sa mga kaaway, na inihahandog ang sariling katawan na wari’y haliging yūpa ng paghahain, ay nagsasagawa ng isang yajña na maihahambing sa ritwal na may walang-hanggang dakṣiṇā—mga kaloob sa mga pari na di nauubos.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Defending a Brahmin in a righteous crisis—even at the cost of one’s own life—is treated as a supreme religious act: a living yajña whose ‘dakṣiṇā’ is limitless. The verse equates ethical self-offering for dharma with the highest sacrificial merit.
Bhishma is instructing on dharma in the Shanti Parva. He describes a scenario where enemies threaten a Brahmin; the protector who advances to fight and gives up his body is praised as performing a sacrifice, with the body likened to the yūpa (sacrificial post).