Shloka 17
Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)
उदारचित्त पुरुष सत्य, शौच, सरलता, त्याग, तेज, पराक्रम, क्षमा, धैर्य, बुद्धि, मन और तपके प्रभावसे समस्त विषयात्मक भावोंपर आलोचनात्मक दृष्टि रखते हुए शान्तिकी इच्छासे अपनी इन्द्रियोंको संयममें रखे ।। सत्त्वेन रजसा चैव तमसा चैव मोहिता: । चक्रवत् परिवर्तन्ते हृज्ञानाज्जन्तवो भूशम्
udāracittaḥ puruṣaḥ satyaśauca-saralatā-tyāga-tejaḥ-parākrama-kṣamā-dhairya-buddhi-manas-tapaḥ-prabhāvāt samasta-viṣayātmaka-bhāveṣu ālocanātmikāṃ dṛṣṭiṃ kṛtvā śānti-kāmaḥ svendriyāṇi saṃyame niveśayet || sattvena rajasā caiva tamasā caiva mohitāḥ | cakravat parivartante hṛjñānāj jantavo bhūśam ||
Bhishma said: A noble-minded person, empowered by truthfulness, purity, straightforwardness, renunciation, vigor, valor, forgiveness, steadiness, intelligence, a disciplined mind, and austerity, should look critically upon all sense-born impulses and, desiring peace, keep the senses under restraint. For beings, deluded by sattva, rajas, and tamas, keep revolving like a wheel, greatly driven by the mind’s inner cognition and its confusions.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Cultivate inner virtues (truth, purity, simplicity, renunciation, vigor, forgiveness, steadiness, discernment) and use them to examine sense-impulses critically; then restrain the senses for the sake of peace. Otherwise, beings remain trapped in cyclical fluctuation under the influence of the three guṇas.
In the Śānti Parva instruction, Bhīṣma continues advising on the path to peace and liberation: he prescribes ethical and psychological disciplines and explains how the guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas) keep creatures revolving in recurring patterns unless checked by discernment and self-restraint.