Shloka 25
Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)
युधिछिर उवाच के दोषा मनसा त्यक्ता: के बुद्धया शिथिलीकृता: । के पुन: पुनरायान्ति के मोहादफला इव,युधिष्ठिरने पूछा--पितामह! पूर्वकालके मुमुक्षुओंने किन-किन दोषोंका मनके द्वारा त्याग किया है और किन्हें बुद्धिके द्वारा शिथिल किया है? कौन दोष बारंबार आते हैं और कौन मोहवश फल देनेमें असमर्थ-से प्रतीत होते हैं?
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | ke doṣā manasā tyaktāḥ ke buddhyā śithilīkṛtāḥ | ke punaḥ punarāyānti ke mohād aphalā iva ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Which faults have the seekers of liberation in former times abandoned by mastering the mind, and which have they weakened through discernment? Which faults return again and again, and which—through delusion—seem as though they cannot yield any result?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames ethical discipline as a twofold practice: some vices are abandoned through mastery of the mind (manas), while others are weakened through discriminative understanding (buddhi). It also highlights that certain faults recur habitually, and that delusion (moha) can render one’s efforts ‘fruitless’ by obscuring right judgment and consistent practice.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and inner life, Yudhiṣṭhira questions the elder teacher about the practical psychology of moral reform: which defects earlier aspirants renounced, which they merely attenuated, which keep returning, and which become ineffective due to delusion.