Shloka 30
प्रजाविसर्ग-तत्त्वनिर्णयः | Cosmogony of Elemental Emergence
Bharadvāja–Bhṛgu Dialogue
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्न द्वयं देहे प्रतिष्ठितम् । मृत्युमापद्यते मोहात् सत्येनापद्यतेडमृतम्,अमृत और मृत्यु दोनों इस शरीरमें ही स्थित हैं। मनुष्य मोहसे मृत्युको और सत्यसे अमृतको प्राप्त होता है
amṛtaṃ caiva mṛtyuś ca dvayaṃ dehe pratiṣṭhitam | mṛtyum āpadyate mohāt satyenāpadyate 'mṛtam ||
Bhishma said: “Both immortality and death are established within this very body. Through delusion a person falls into death, but through truthfulness one attains immortality.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches moral causality within embodied life: delusion (moha) leads to spiritual death and bondage, while truthfulness (satya)—alignment with reality and dharma—leads toward deathlessness (amṛta), i.e., liberation or the imperishable good.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma is advising Yudhishthira on dharma and right conduct. Here he frames an inner ethical choice: the same human condition contains both ruin and liberation, depending on whether one lives in delusion or in truth.