Shloka 16
अनुशासनपर्व अध्याय ९३ — तपस्, सदोपवास, विघसाशन, अतिथिप्रियता
Austerity, regulated fasting, residual-eating, and hospitality
ज्ञानपूर्व तु ये तेभ्य: प्रयच्छन्त्यल्पबुद्धय: । पुरीषं भुज्जते तेषां पितर: प्रेत्य निश्चय:
jñānapūrvaṃ tu ye tebhyaḥ prayacchanty alpabuddhayaḥ | purīṣaṃ bhuñjate teṣāṃ pitaraḥ pretya niścayaḥ ||
Bhīṣma nói: “Những kẻ trí hèn mà biết rõ vẫn cố ý đem lễ vật śrāddha bố thí cho hạng Brāhmaṇa làm ô uế hàng ngồi ấy—thì tổ tiên của chính những người bố thí đó, sau khi chết, nhất định phải ăn đồ nhơ bẩn.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Charity and ritual offerings must be guided by discernment: knowingly giving śrāddha food to unworthy, corrupt recipients destroys the intended merit and instead yields a painful, degrading result for one’s ancestors.
In Bhishma’s instruction on dharma, he warns about improper conduct in śrāddha: if a person, despite knowing the recipients are pāṅkti-dūṣaka (ritually and socially corrupt), still feeds them in the ancestral rite, the pitṛs do not receive sanctified benefit; the outcome is described as the pitṛs consuming filth in the afterlife.