Shloka 23
एवं नराणां मनसि त्रिषु भावेष्ववस्थिता,इस प्रकार वह मनुष्योंके मनके भीतर तीन भावोंमें अवस्थित है, यह भावात्मिका बुद्धि (समाधि-अवस्थामें) सुख, दुःख और मोह--इन तीनों भावोंको लाँघ जाती है। ठीक उसी तरह जैसे सरिताओंका स्वामी समुद्र उत्ताल तरंगोंसे संयुक्त हो अपनी विशाल तटभूमिको भी कभी-कभी लाँघ जाता है
evaṁ narāṇāṁ manasi triṣu bhāveṣv avasthitā; sā bhāvātmikā buddhiḥ samādhi-avasthāyāṁ sukha-duḥkha-moha—etān trīn bhāvān laṅghayati; yathā saritāṁ svāmī samudraḥ uttāla-taraṅgaiḥ saṁyuktaḥ san svāṁ vipulāṁ taṭabhūmim api kadācid laṅghayati.
Bhishma said: Thus, within the human mind it abides as three dispositions. Yet that very disposition-shaped intellect, when it enters the state of deep concentration, oversteps these three—pleasure, pain, and delusion. It is like the ocean, lord of rivers: joined with towering waves, it sometimes surges beyond even its vast shoreline.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that although the mind commonly functions through three affective conditions—pleasure, pain, and delusion—the discriminative intellect can, in samādhi, transcend these fluctuations. Ethical steadiness arises when one is no longer driven by these inner tides.
Bhishma continues his instruction in the Shanti Parva by explaining the psychology of inner states and the possibility of surpassing them through meditative absorption, illustrating the point with a vivid image of the ocean overflowing its shores when stirred by great waves.