Shloka 34

Haṃsa–Sādhya Saṃvāda: Satya, Dama, Kṣamā and the Discipline of Speech

Devanagari script

पर्यडुकशय्या भूमिश्न समाने यस्य देहिन: । शालयश्न कदन्नं च यस्य स्यान्मुक्त एव सः,“जिस देहधारीके लिये पलंगकी सेज और भूमि--दोनों समान है; जो अगहनीके चावल और कोदो आदिको एक-सा समझता है, वह मुक्त ही है”

Transliteration

paryaṅkaśayyā bhūmiś ca samāne yasya dehinaḥ | śāliś ca kadannaṃ ca yasya syān mukta eva saḥ ||

Translation

Bhīṣma sprach: Schon befreit ist der verkörperte Mensch, dem Bettstatt und nackter Boden gleich sind und dem feiner Reis und grobes Korn gleichermaßen genügen.

Word by Word

पर्यङ्कशय्याbed on a couch (couch-bed)

भूमिःground, earth

चand

समानेequal (two things)

यस्यof whom/whose

देहिनःof the embodied being

शालिःrice (śāli)

चand

कदन्नम्coarse/poor food (e.g., inferior grains)

चand

यस्यof whom/whose

स्यात्would be / is (in the sense of ‘is considered’)

मुक्तःliberated, free

एवindeed, certainly

सःhe

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhishma

dehin (embodied being)

bed (paryaṅka-śayyā)

earth/ground (bhūmi)

fine rice (śāli)

coarse food/grains (kadanna)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Liberation is marked by equanimity: when one is no longer attached to comfort (bed) or distressed by hardship (ground), and when one does not crave refined food over coarse fare, one has transcended desire and aversion—key bonds of saṃsāra.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the path to peace after the war. Here he gives a concise sign of inner freedom, describing the liberated person’s even-mindedness toward bodily pleasures and necessities.