Shloka 18
मनुरुवाच — इन्द्रिय-मनः-ज्ञान-क्रमः
Manu on the hierarchy of senses, mind, and knowledge
अरागमोहो निर्दनद्धी न शोचति न सज्जते । न कर्ता कारणानां च न कार्याणामिति स्थिति:
arāgamohō nirdvanddhī na śocati na sajjate | na kartā kāraṇānāṁ ca na kāryāṇām iti sthitiḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: One who is free from passion and delusion, and who has gone beyond the pairs of opposites, neither grieves nor clings. Seeing oneself as neither the doer of causes nor the agent of effects—this is the settled state of inner steadiness.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches inner steadiness through detachment: freedom from attachment and delusion, transcendence of dualities, and a non-doer perspective in which one does not identify the self as the agent behind causes or effects—leading to non-grief and non-clinging.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and liberation-oriented conduct. Here he describes the marks of a stabilized, wise person—one who remains unshaken by opposites and does not appropriate actions and outcomes as ‘mine’.