Shloka 8

Adhyāya 287 — Janaka’s Inquiry on Śreyas, Abhayadāna, and Asaṅga

Non-attachment

Devanagari script

भगवन्नाश्रमा: सर्वे पृथगाचारदर्शिन: । इदं श्रेय इदं श्रेय इति सर्वे प्रबोधिता:,“भगवन्‌! सभी आश्रमोंवाले पृथक्‌ू-पृथक्‌ आचारका दर्शन कराते हैं तथा “यह श्रेष्ठ है' यह श्रेष्ठ है” ऐसा उपदेश देते हुए वे (अपने ही सिद्धान्तोंकी श्रेष्ठठाका प्रतिपादन करते हैं और) सभी मनुष्योंकी बुद्धिमें यही बात जमा देते हैं

Transliteration

bhagavann āśramāḥ sarve pṛthag-ācāra-darśinaḥ | idaṃ śreya idaṃ śreya iti sarve prabodhitāḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma sprach: „O Ehrwürdiger, alle Lebensstufen (āśramas) weisen je eigene, unterschiedliche Verhaltensregeln auf. Jede verkündet: ‚Dies ist das höchste Heil, dies ist das höchste Heil‘, und so belehren sie die Menschen – indem sie die Vorzüglichkeit ihrer eigenen Disziplin behaupten und diese Überzeugung dem menschlichen Verstand einprägen.“

Word by Word

• {'bhagavan': 'venerable one

• revered lord (a respectful address)', 'āśramāḥ': 'the life-stages/ordered modes of life (student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant)', 'sarve': 'all', 'pṛthak': 'separately

• distinctly', 'ācāra': 'conduct

• discipline', 'darśinaḥ': 'showing

• pointing out (lit. ‘seeing/causing to be seen’)', 'idaṃ': 'this', 'śreyaḥ': 'the good

• the highest welfare', 'iti': 'thus

• ‘so’ (quotative particle)', 'prabodhitāḥ': 'instructed

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• āśramas (four life-stages)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhishma highlights that different āśramas advocate different disciplines as ‘the highest good,’ shaping people’s convictions; this sets up the need to discern a unifying or higher criterion of dharma beyond sectarian self-assertion.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma addresses a revered interlocutor and observes that each life-stage promotes its own code as supreme, prompting further inquiry into which path truly leads to the highest welfare.