Shloka 66
Tapas, Tīrtha, and Moral Rehabilitation (Śānti-parva 148)
यथा स्वल्पं सरो ग्रीष्मे शोषयिष्याम्यहं तथा । “आजसे मैं अपने शरीरको सम्पूर्ण भोगोंसे वंचित करके उसी प्रकार सुखा डालूँगा, जैसे गर्मीमें छोटा-सा तालाब सूख जाता है
yathā svalpaṃ saro grīṣme śoṣayiṣyāmy ahaṃ tathā |
Bhīṣma sprach: „Wie ein kleiner Teich in der Sommerhitze austrocknet, so werde auch ich diesen Leib austrocknen — indem ich ihn bewusst jeder Freude entziehe.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches deliberate self-restraint: by withdrawing from sense-pleasures, one weakens attachment and the body’s demands, cultivating detachment and ethical steadiness.
Bhīṣma, speaking as a moral instructor in the Śānti Parva, uses a vivid simile—summer drying a small pond—to express his resolve to deny the body indulgence and thereby ‘dry up’ its cravings.