Shloka 4
मेरे मनमें यह महान् संदेह पैदा हो गया है। मैं तो ऐसा समझता हूँ कि यह सहधर्मका कथन विरुद्ध है। यहाँ जो सहधर्म है, वह मृत्युके पश्चात् कहाँ रहता है? ।। स्वर्गो मृतानां भवति सहधर्म: पितामह । पूर्वमेकस्तु म्रियते क्व चैकस्तिष्ठते वद,पितामह! जबकि मरे हुए मनुष्योंका स्वर्गवास हो जाता है एवं पति और पत्नीमेंसे एककी पहले मृत्यु हो जाती है, तब एक व्यक्तिमें सहधर्म कहाँ रहता है? यह बताइये
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | mama manasi mahān saṁśayo jātaḥ | ahaṁ hi manye sahadharmasya vacanaṁ viruddham | iha yaḥ sahadharmaḥ sa mṛtyoḥ paścāt kva tiṣṭhati? svargo mṛtānāṁ bhavati sahadharmaḥ pitāmaha | pūrvam ekaḥ tu mriyate kva ca ekaḥ tiṣṭhati vada, pitāmaha | yadā mṛtānāṁ manuṣyāṇāṁ svargavāso bhavati evaṁ pati-patnyoḥ ekasya pūrvaṁ mṛtyur bhavati tadā ekasmin sahadharmaḥ kva tiṣṭhati? etad vada |
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “A great doubt has arisen in my mind. I think this teaching about ‘shared dharma’ is inconsistent. If ‘shared dharma’ is what binds husband and wife, where does it remain after death? O Pitāmaha, the dead are said to attain heaven—yet if one spouse dies earlier, where does that ‘joint duty’ abide then? Tell me: when the departed go to heaven and one of the pair dies first, in whom does the shared dharma reside?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a philosophical problem: if spouses are said to share a single dharma (sahadharma), how can that unity be maintained when death separates them and the deceased is said to attain heaven? It invites clarification on whether ‘shared dharma’ is a joint practice in life, a shared merit, or a metaphysical bond that persists beyond death.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira questions Bhīṣma (addressed as Pitāmaha) during Bhīṣma’s instruction on dharma. Here he challenges an apparent contradiction in teachings about marital partnership in dharma, using the scenario of one spouse dying before the other and the dead attaining heaven.