Shloka 47
Saṃhāra-krama (The Sequence of Cosmic Dissolution) — Yājñavalkya’s Discourse
काम जित्वा तथा क्रोधं शीतोष्णे वर्षमेव च । भयं शोकं तथा श्वासं पौरुषान् विषयांस्तथा
kāmaṃ jitvā tathā krodhaṃ śītoṣṇe varṣam eva ca | bhayaṃ śokaṃ tathā śvāsaṃ pauruṣān viṣayāṃs tathā
Bhīṣma sprach: „Hat man Begehren und Zorn besiegt und Kälte und Hitze, ja selbst den Regen ertragen, so soll man ebenso Furcht und Kummer meistern und den Atem ordnen; und auch die Triebe der Männlichkeit sowie den Sog der Sinnesobjekte zügeln.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches inner conquest: overcoming desire and anger, remaining steady amid bodily hardships (cold, heat, rain), mastering fear and grief, and regulating breath and sensory attraction. Such restraint is presented as a foundation for dharma and ethical clarity.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma after the war. Here he lists disciplines of self-mastery—control of passions, endurance of opposites, and regulation of breath and senses—as part of the broader teaching on righteous living and inner governance.