Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 30
अव्यक्त-मानस-सृष्टिवादः
Doctrine of Creation from the Unmanifest ‘Mānasa’
अन्यथा न तो सुहृद् सुख देनेमें समर्थ हैं, न शत्रु दुःख देनेमें समर्थ हैं, न तो बुद्धि धन देनेकी शक्ति रखती है और न धन ही सुख देनेमें समर्थ होता है ।।
brāhmaṇa uvāca | anyathā na te suhṛdaḥ sukha-dāne samarthāḥ, na śatravaḥ duḥkha-dāne samarthāḥ; na buddhiḥ dhana-dāne śaktiṃ rakṣati, na ca dhanaṃ sukha-dāne samarthaṃ bhavati || na buddhiḥ dhana-lābhāya, na jāḍyaṃ asamṛddhaye | loka-paryāya-vṛttāntaṃ prājño jānāti na itaraḥ ||
The Brahmin said: “It is not as people suppose. Friends are not truly capable of bestowing happiness, nor are enemies truly capable of inflicting sorrow. Intelligence does not, by itself, have the power to grant wealth, and wealth itself is not capable of guaranteeing happiness. Intelligence is not necessarily the cause of gaining riches, nor is dullness necessarily the cause of poverty. Only a wise person understands the turning of the world’s cycle and how outcomes arise; others do not.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Happiness and sorrow are not ultimately controlled by friends or enemies, nor are wealth and poverty strictly determined by intelligence or stupidity. The verse points to the complex, cyclical order of worldly outcomes (loka-paryāya), which only the wise discern, encouraging humility and detachment from simplistic blame or pride.
A Brahmin speaker delivers a reflective instruction in the Śānti Parva, correcting common assumptions about causality in human life—who causes our joy or pain, and what causes prosperity or lack of it—by emphasizing deeper patterns governing worldly events.