Shloka 3
निरय-परमस्थान-वर्णनम्
Niraya and the Supreme Station: A Metaphysical Re-reading
स्वर्ग: प्रकाश इत्याहुर्नरक॑ तम एव च । सत्यानृतं तदुभयं प्राप्पते जगतीचरै:
svargaḥ prakāśa ity āhur narakaṃ tama eva ca | satyānṛtaṃ tad ubhayaṃ prāpnoti jagatīcaraiḥ ||
Bharadvāja said: “They declare that heaven is light, and hell is nothing but darkness. The human condition, however, is a mixture of truth and untruth; and it is through this blended state—where knowledge and ignorance are interwoven—that embodied beings moving in the world come to experience both.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
Heaven and hell are framed as light and darkness, but human life is portrayed as a mixed field of satya (truth/clarity) and anṛta (untruth/obscurity). Because of this mixture, beings in the world encounter both knowledge and ignorance and thereby move toward experiences associated with both ‘light’ and ‘darkness’.
In the Shanti Parva’s instructional discourse, Bharadvāja is explaining a moral-psychological mapping of realms: svarga as illumination and naraka as darkness, then qualifying it by describing the human realm as a blended condition through which worldly beings come to partake of both.