Shloka 50
Treasury Security, Protection of Informants, and the Kalakavṛkṣīya Exemplum (Śānti Parva 83)
तेनैवोग्रेन्धनेनैनं दावो दहति दारुण: । तथोपमा ह्ामात्यास्ते राज॑ंस्तान्ू परिशोधय
tenaivogrendhanenainaṁ dāvo dahati dāruṇaḥ | tathopamā hy amātyās te rājan tān pariśodhaya ||
毗湿摩说道：“正是凭那凶烈的薪柴，惨烈的林火才得以焚尽这棵大树。亦复如是，大王啊，你的群臣已如枯藤——因你扶持而滋长，强盛到足以压过你，继而成为你覆亡的薪火。故当澄清政事：稽察、整饬，并革除贪腐之吏，莫使其从内里焚毁王国。”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler must actively scrutinize and cleanse the administration. Officials who rise under royal patronage can become instruments of the king’s own destruction if left unchecked; therefore, corruption must be investigated and removed early.
Bhīṣma is instructing a king in righteous governance. Using the image of a great tree burned by a forest-fire fed by dried creepers that once grew upon it, he warns that the king’s own ministers—grown powerful under his shelter—may now endanger him and the realm, so they must be ‘purified’ through corrective action.