Shloka 43
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
“इस प्रकार विचार करनेसे एक तो वह नारी होनेके कारण ही अवध्य है, दूसरे मेरी पूजनीया माता है। माताका गौरव पितासे भी बढ़कर है, जिसमें मेरी माँ प्रतिष्ठित है। नासमझ पशु भी स्त्री और माताको अवध्य मानते हैं (फिर मैं समझदार मनुष्य होकर भी उसका वध कैसे करूँ?) ।।
devatānāṁ samavāyam ekasthaṁ pitaraṁ viduḥ | martyānāṁ devatānāṁ ca snehād abhyeti mātaram ||
毗湿摩解释道：“如此思量，首先，她因其为女子，依其本性便应视为不可杀；其次，她又是我应当礼敬供养的母亲。母亲的尊严甚至高于父亲，因为在她之中安立着子嗣生命与敬爱之根本。连无知的禽兽也凭本能把妇女与母亲视为不可侵犯——我既为明辨之人，又怎能对她施以暴行？智者知道：父亲是一处所在，汇聚诸天之众；而母亲因其慈爱，将一切凡人与诸天之群都摄持于自身之内——故母之伟大，超越于父。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse elevates the ethical inviolability of the mother (and, by extension, women) and argues that maternal status commands the highest restraint: the father is revered as a concentrated embodiment of divine authority, yet the mother—through her nurturing affection—symbolically contains and sustains the entire world of beings; therefore harming her is a grave violation of dharma.
Bhishma is articulating a moral justification for refusing violence against a woman who is also his mother. He reasons from dharma and natural instinct (even animals refrain) to establish that matricide or harm to the mother is unthinkable, and he supports this with a maxim contrasting the father’s divine representative role with the mother’s all-encompassing, life-sustaining status.