Shloka 24
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
तेषां पुत्राभिरामाणामिहलोके परत्र च । न गुणो दृश्यते कश्रनित् प्रजा: संधारयन्ति च
teṣāṃ putrābhirāmāṇām iha-loke paratra ca | na guṇo dṛśyate kaścid prajāḥ saṃdhārayanti ca ||
毗湿摩说道：“那些以子为乐的众生，在此世与彼世，都看不出因抚育子嗣而得的任何利益；然而它们仍旧扶持并护卫自己的幼子。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights that the impulse to protect and nurture one’s offspring operates even where no calculable worldly or otherworldly ‘profit’ is evident. This underscores parental care as a natural, duty-like force—grounded in affection and the sustaining of life rather than in transactional expectation.
In the instruction-filled Shanti Parva, Bhishma is explaining principles of conduct and motivation. Here he uses the example of animals devoted to their young to show that beings maintain and safeguard their offspring even without perceiving any explicit benefit in either this life or the next.