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 |
Bhīṣma nói: “Thấy ông ta—trông như kẻ ăn thịt người, tan nát và sa sút đến tận cùng—vị brāhmaṇa nhận ra ông. Hổ thẹn, ông liền cất lời như sau.”
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.