Shloka 6

Devanagari script

भीष्म उवाच नास्त्यनन्तं महाराज सर्व संख्यानगोचर: । पुनर्भावोडपि विख्यातो नास्ति किंचिदिहाचलम्‌,भीष्मजीने कहा--महाराज! दुःख अनन्त नहीं हैं। जगत्‌की सभी वस्तुएँ संख्याकी सीमामें ही हैं--असंख्य नहीं हैं। पुनर्जन्म भी नश्वरताके लिये विख्यात ही है। तात्पर्य यह कि इस जगतमें कोई भी वस्तु अचल या स्थायी नहीं है

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca nāsty anantaṃ mahārāja sarvaṃ saṅkhyānagocaraḥ | punarbhāvo 'pi vikhyāto nāsti kiṃcid ihācalam ||

Translation

قال بيشما: «أيها الملك العظيم، ليس في هذا العالم شيءٌ لا نهاية له حقًّا. فكل ما في الدنيا داخلٌ في نطاق العدد والقياس؛ ولا شيء يتجاوز الحد. وحتى إعادة الميلاد معروفةٌ بأنها مقرونةٌ بالفناء. وخلاصة القول: لا شيء في هذا العالم ثابتٌ لا يتحرك—ولا شيء دائم.»

Word by Word

• {'bhīṣma uvāca': 'Bhishma said', 'nāsti': 'there is not

• does not exist', 'anantam': 'endless

• infinite', 'mahārāja': 'O great king (address to the ruler)', 'sarvam': 'all

• everything', 'saṅkhyā-nagocaraḥ': 'within the range of counting/measure

• numerable, limited', 'punarbhāvaḥ': 'becoming again

• return to existence', 'api': 'also

• even', 'vikhyātaḥ': 'well-known

• widely recognized', 'kiṃcit': 'anything

• something', 'iha': 'here

• in this world', 'acalam': 'immovable

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• Mahārāja (the king, i.e., Yudhiṣṭhira)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhishma teaches the universality of impermanence: all conditioned things are limited and measurable, and even the cycle of rebirth is tied to decay and change; therefore one should not cling to worldly states as if they were permanent.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Shanti Parva’s instruction to the king, Bhishma continues his counsel by emphasizing that suffering and worldly conditions are not infinite or fixed; this supports Yudhiṣṭhira’s ethical and spiritual reorientation after the war toward steadiness, restraint, and non-attachment.