Shloka 52
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
हत्वा साध्वीं च नारीं च व्यसनित्वाच्च वासिताम् | भर्तव्यत्वेन भार्यां च को नु मां तारयिष्यति
hatvā sādhvīṁ ca nārīṁ ca vyasanitvāc ca vāsitām | bhartavyatvena bhāryāṁ ca ko nu māṁ tārayiṣyati
毗湿摩说道：“我既杀了一位贞善的女子，又杀了一位被逼至败落、在苦难中苟活的女子；又娶妻只当作必须供养的负担——究竟谁能救度我？”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral accountability: grievous harm done to the vulnerable and treating marriage as mere maintenance rather than dharmic partnership are presented as burdens of wrongdoing, prompting the urgent question of who can ‘deliver’ one from the consequences—implying the need for repentance, restitution, and dharmic conduct.
Bhishma speaks in a confessional, self-questioning tone, listing acts he regards as ethically weighty—violence against women and a failure to honor the deeper duties of marriage—and asks who can rescue him from the resulting moral peril.