Shloka 12
शोक-शमन उपदेशः
Instruction on the Pacification of Grief
यथा च मृण्मयं भाण्डं चक्रारूढं विपद्यते | किंचित् प्रक्रियमाणं वा कृतमात्रमथापि वा
yathā ca mṛṇmayaṃ bhāṇḍaṃ cakrārūḍhaṃ vipadyate | kiṃcit prakriyamāṇaṃ vā kṛtamātram athāpi vā ||
Wie ein irdenes Gefäß, auf die Töpferscheibe gesetzt, zugrunde gehen kann — sei es erst ein wenig geformt, noch im Formen begriffen oder sogar eben erst vollendet —, so kann auch das Zerbrechliche und eben Geschaffene rasch zerstört werden.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches the principle of impermanence: like a clay pot on the wheel, life and human undertakings—whether just begun, still forming, or newly completed—can be destroyed suddenly. The ethical implication is to cultivate steadiness, humility, and dharmic restraint amid success and disaster.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vidura speaks in a consolatory and admonitory mode. He uses a vivid everyday metaphor (a pot on the potter’s wheel) to frame the devastation and grief as part of the fragile condition of worldly existence.