Shloka 37
Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)
यावद्यावदभूच्छुद्धा देहं धारयितुं नृणाम् । तावत् तावदजीवंस्ते नासीद् यमकृतं भयम्,पहले मनुष्योंको जितने दिनोंतक शरीर धारण करनेकी इच्छा होती, उतने दिनोंतक वे जीवित रहते थे। उन्हें यमराजका कोई भय नहीं होता था
yāvad yāvad abhūc chuddhā dehaṃ dhārayituṃ nṛṇām | tāvat tāvad ajīvaṃs te nāsīd yamakṛtaṃ bhayam ||
Bhishma said: “So long as human beings retained the pure capacity to sustain the body, for just so long did they remain alive. In that earlier order of life, there was no fear produced by Yama—death did not stand over them as a terror, for lifespan followed their inner vitality rather than an external compulsion.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Life and death are presented as governed by an inner moral-cosmic condition: when human nature was 'pure' and capable of sustaining the body, lifespan followed that capacity, and fear of death (personified as Yama) did not dominate. The verse contrasts an earlier harmonious order with later decline, where death becomes a source of anxiety.
Bhishma, instructing on dharma and the nature of worldly order, describes a former time when people lived for as long as they could and wished to sustain their bodies. Because death did not forcibly interrupt life then, Yama was not feared in the way he is in later ages.