Shloka 47

गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow

Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode

Devanagari script

शरीरमिह सत्त्वेन न तस्य परिकृष्यते । ज्येष्ठमध्यावरं सत्त्वं तुल्यसत्त्वं प्रमोदते

Transliteration

śarīram iha sattvena na tasya parikṛṣyate | jyeṣṭha-madhyāvaraṁ sattvaṁ tulya-sattvaṁ pramodate ||

Translation

Bhishma sprach: In dieser Welt wird der Leib eines Menschen nicht allein dadurch von seiner angeborenen Wesensart abgezogen, dass er eine verfeinerte oder „gelehrte“ Sicht annimmt. Ob seine Natur höher, mittel oder niedrig sei—welches Temperament auch immer Leib und Person geformt hat—gerade diese Anlage erscheint ihm angenehm, und an dem ihm Ähnlichen hat er Freude.

Word by Word

• {'śarīram': 'body

• embodied constitution', 'iha': 'here

• in this world', 'sattvena': 'by sattva

• by one’s disposition/temperament (also ‘purity’ in guṇa-theory, context-dependent)', 'na': 'not', 'tasya': 'of him/of that person', 'parikṛṣyate': 'is dragged away

• is forcibly altered/removed from its natural course', 'jyeṣṭha': 'superior

• excellent', 'madhya': 'middling

• moderate', 'avara': 'inferior

• lower', 'sattvam': 'nature

• disposition', 'tulya-sattvam': 'one of similar nature

• what matches one’s disposition', 'pramodate': 'rejoices

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Innate disposition (sattva/temperament) strongly conditions embodied life; mere acquisition of ‘learned’ or doctrinal understanding does not automatically uproot one’s natural tendencies. Ethical cultivation must therefore be gradual and practice-based, not only intellectual.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhīṣma’s instruction discourse (Anuśāsana Parva), he explains to his listener that people naturally gravitate toward what matches their own temperament, and that the body-personality complex does not readily shift away from its inborn constitution simply through abstract knowledge.