Shloka 14
Adhyāya 222 — ब्रह्मस्थानप्राप्ति: मोक्षधर्मे समत्वव्रतम्
Attaining the Brahman-Station: The Vow of Equanimity in Mokṣadharma
प्रह्माद उवाच प्रवृत्ति च निवृत्ति च भूतानां यो न बुद्धयते । तस्य स्तम्भो भवेद् बाल्यान्नास्ति स्तम्भो5नुपश्यत:
prahlāda uvāca pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca bhūtānāṁ yo na budhyate | tasya stambho bhaved bālyān nāsti stambho'nupaśyataḥ ||
Prahlāda said: “One who does not understand, in living beings, the two paths—engagement in action and withdrawal from action—falls into a rigid obstinacy born of childishness. For the one who truly sees things as they are, there is no such stubborn fixation.”
प्रह्माद उवाच
Educational Q&A
True wisdom discerns when action (pravṛtti) is appropriate and when withdrawal/renunciation (nivṛtti) is appropriate. Failure to discern these leads to immature rigidity (stambha), whereas clear seeing produces flexibility, humility, and right judgment.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and inner discipline, Prahlāda speaks as a teacher, contrasting the immature person who clings stubbornly to a single stance with the discerning person who understands both life-paths—worldly engagement and renunciant withdrawal—and therefore is not trapped by dogmatic fixation.