Shloka 19
विधूम इव दीप्तार्चिरादित्य इव दीप्तिमान्,सत्त्वसंसेवनाद धीरो निद्रामुच्छेत्तुमरहति । विद्वानोंने योगके जो काम, क्रोध, लोभ, भय और पाँचवाँ स्वप्र--ये पाँच दोष बताये हैं उनका पूर्णतया उच्छेद करे। इनमेंसे क्रोधको शम (मनोनिग्रह) के द्वारा जीते, कामको संकल्पके त्यागद्वारा पराजित करे तथा धीर पुरुष सत्वगुणका सेवन करनेसे निद्राका उच्छेद कर सकता है
vyāsa uvāca | vidhūma iva dīptārcir āditya iva dīptimān, sattva-saṃsevanād dhīro nidrām ucchettum arhati | vidvān yoge ye kāma-krodha-lobha-bhayaṃ pañcamaṃ ca svapnam—ime pañca doṣāḥ proktāḥ—tān sarvathā ucchetayet | teṣāṃ madhye krodhaṃ śamena (manonigrahena) jayet, kāmaṃ saṅkalpa-tyāgena parājayet, tathā dhīraḥ sattva-guṇa-sevanena nidrāyā ucchedaṃ kartum arhati ||
Vyāsa said: “Like a smokeless flame, like the radiant sun, the steadfast person—by cultivating sattva—becomes fit to cut off sleep. A wise practitioner should completely uproot the five faults taught in yoga: desire, anger, greed, fear, and (as the fifth) dreaming. Of these, let him conquer anger through calm self-restraint, defeat desire by abandoning compulsive resolve, and by nourishing the quality of sattva the resolute one can bring sleep to an end.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that a yogic aspirant should uproot five inner obstacles—desire, anger, greed, fear, and dreaming—and that practical methods exist: anger is subdued by śama (calm self-restraint), desire is weakened by abandoning saṅkalpa (the mental resolve that feeds craving), and sleep/torpor is overcome by cultivating sattva (clarity and balance).
Within Śānti Parva’s instruction on peace and inner discipline, Vyāsa delivers a didactic teaching on yogic self-mastery, using luminous imagery (smokeless flame, radiant sun) to describe the purified, sattvic practitioner who becomes capable of overcoming sleep and other mental faults.