Shloka 21
Kośa, Bala, and Maryādā: Treasury, Capacity, and Enforceable Limits (कोश-बल-मर्यादा)
यथा वै ब्राह्मण: सीदन्नयाज्यमपि याजयेत् । अभोज्यान्नानि चाश्रीयात् तथेदं नात्र संशय:
yathā vai brāhmaṇaḥ sīdann ayājyam api yājayet | abhojyānnāni cāśrīyāt tathā idaṃ nātra saṃśayaḥ ||
毗湿摩说道：“正如婆罗门若因生计匮乏而陷于困厄，甚至可以为通常不具备资格的施主主持祭祀；又为保全性命，甚至可以取用平日所禁之食——同样地，前一颂为刹帝利所规定之义务，也当如此理解。对此毫无疑义。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
In extreme hardship (āpaddharma), preserving life and sustaining one’s role may justify limited exceptions to normal rules—such as a brāhmaṇa officiating for an ordinarily ineligible patron or eating normally forbidden food—paralleling emergency duties prescribed for a kṣatriya.
Bhīṣma, instructing on dharma in the Śānti Parva, clarifies that the previous instruction about a kṣatriya’s conduct in crisis should be accepted without doubt, using the brāhmaṇa’s emergency allowances as an analogy.