Shloka 296
Śreyas-nirdeśa (Discerning the Superior Good): Nārada–Gālava Saṃvāda
मृत्युरापद्यते मोहात् सत्येनापद्यते5मृतम् । अमृत और मृत्यु--ये दोनों इस शरीरमें ही विद्यमान हैं। मोहसे मृत्यु प्राप्त होती है और सत्यसे अमृतपदकी उपलब्धि होती है
mṛtyur āpadyate mohāt satyenāpadyate ’mṛtam | amṛtaṃ ca mṛtyuś ca ubhe ’smin śarīre vidyete | mohān mṛtyuḥ prāpyate satyād amṛtapadasya prāptir bhavati ||
Bhīṣma said: “Through delusion one falls into death; through truth one attains the deathless. Both immortality and death are present within this very body: delusion leads to mortality, while steadfast truthfulness opens the way to the state beyond death.” The teaching frames liberation not as something distant, but as a moral and cognitive transformation enacted in embodied life.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Delusion (moha) is the inner cause of ‘death’—bondage, decline, and repeated suffering—whereas truth (satya), as a disciplined alignment of speech, mind, and conduct with reality and dharma, leads to the ‘deathless’ (amṛta), i.e., liberation or imperishable well-being.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the means to peace after the war. Here he distills a moral-psychological principle: the decisive battlefield is within the embodied person—moha produces ruin, while satya becomes a path to the highest good.