Shloka 54
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
गृध्र उदाच अद्य वर्षसहस््रं मे साग्रं जातस्य मानुषा: । न च पश्यामि जीवन्तं मृतं स्त्रीपुंनपुंसकम्
gṛdhra uvāca: adya varṣa-sahasraṃ me sāgraṃ jātasya, mānuṣāḥ; na ca paśyāmi jīvantaṃ mṛtaṃ strī-puṃ-napuṃsakam.
The vulture said: “O humans, today more than a thousand years have passed since my birth; yet I have never seen any woman, man, or eunuch who, after dying, has returned to life.”
जम्बुक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the inevitability and finality of death in embodied life, urging sober ethical reflection: since no one is seen to return after dying, one should live with awareness of impermanence and act according to dharma rather than clinging to transient conditions.
A vulture addresses humans and speaks from long-lived experience, stating that in over a thousand years it has never witnessed any person—female, male, or eunuch—come back to life after death, using this observation as a didactic point within the Shanti Parva’s reflective discourse.