Shloka 21
Adhyāya 177: Pañca-mahābhūta-vicāra and Vṛkṣa-jīva-lakṣaṇa
Five Elements Inquiry and the Status of Plant Life
तेषां परमदु:खानां बुद्धया भैषज्यमाचरेत् । लोकथर्ममवज्ञाय ध्रुवाणामध्रुवै: सह,“अतः अनित्य शरीरोंके साथ सदैव लगे रहनेवाले पुत्रैषणा आदि लोकधर्मोंकी अवहेलना करके अवश्य प्राप्त होनेवाले पूर्वोक्त महान् दुःखोंकी विचारपूर्वक चिकित्सा करनी चाहिये
teṣāṃ paramaduḥkhānāṃ buddhyā bhaiṣajyam ācaret | lokadharmam avajñāya dhruvāṇām adhruvaiḥ saha ||
For those extreme and inevitable sufferings, one should, with clear understanding, undertake the proper remedy. Disregarding the merely worldly code of life—bound up with what is unstable—one should seek the cure for what is certain (the great sorrows) rather than cling to the uncertain along with the perishable.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Use discernment to address inevitable, profound suffering by seeking a true remedy (inner cure), and do not be ruled by conventional worldly pursuits and attachments that depend on impermanent things.
Bhishma, in his Shanti Parva instruction, advises the listener to turn from ordinary social preoccupations tied to the transient and instead apply thoughtful effort toward the remedy for the certain and recurring sorrows of embodied life.