Shloka 57
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
इष्टदारवियुक्ताश्च पुत्रशोकान्वितास्तथा । दहामाना: सम शोकेन गृहं गच्छन्ति नित्यश:
iṣṭadāraviyuktāś ca putraśokānvitās tathā | dahyamānāḥ samaśokena gṛhaṃ gacchanti nityaśaḥ ||
Jambuka said: “Bereft of their beloved wives and stricken with grief for their sons, many beings—burning day after day in the same fire of sorrow—leave this cremation-ground and return again to their homes.”
जम्बुक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the repetitive, consuming nature of worldly attachment: even after confronting death at the cremation-ground, people return to household life still burning with the same grief. It implicitly urges vairāgya (dispassion) and steadiness of mind in the face of inevitable loss.
Jambuka is describing a common human scene: mourners who have lost a beloved wife or a son come to the cremation-ground, are scorched by sorrow, and yet repeatedly go back to their homes—showing how ordinary life continues while grief persists.