Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 32
न शोचितव्यं कौरव्य भवितव्यं हि तत् तथा । श्रुत॑ देवरहस्यं ते कृष्णद्वैघधायनादपि
na śocitavyaṃ kauravya bhavitavyaṃ hi tat tathā | śrutaṃ devarahasyaṃ te kṛṣṇadvaipāyanād api ||
Bhishma said: “O scion of the Kuru line, you should not grieve. What has happened was bound to happen exactly so. You have also heard from Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa the secret counsel of the gods—according to which the entire course of the Mahabharata war unfolded.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma teaches restraint in grief by pointing to inevitability: events unfolded according to what had to happen, aligned with a larger divine or cosmic order (deva-rahasya). The ethical emphasis is on accepting outcomes without being consumed by sorrow, especially after catastrophic war.
In Anushasana Parva, Bhishma is instructing and consoling a Kuru prince in the aftermath of the war. He reminds him that he has already heard from Vyasa the ‘secret of the gods,’ implying that the war’s events were foreseen/ordained, and therefore grief should be moderated.