Shloka 52
वृत्ति-सत्सङ्ग-दान-धर्म
Livelihood, Virtuous Association, and Ethics of Giving
शीर्षाभितापो नागानां पर्वतानां शिलाजतु । अपां तु नीलिकां विद्यान्निर्मोक॑ भुजगेषु च
bhīṣma uvāca | śīrṣābhitāpo nāgānāṃ parvatānāṃ śilājatu | apāṃ tu nīlikāṃ vidyān nirmokaṃ bhujageṣu ca ||
Bhishma said: “The burning pain that appears in the heads of elephants is to be understood as their fever. The fever of mountains manifests as śilājatu (mineral pitch). The condition called nīlikā is to be known as the ‘fever’ of waters, and in serpents their sloughed skin—the cast-off sheath—is their fever.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
That ‘fever’ (jvara) can be understood more generally as the distinctive affliction or outward sign of disorder for each category of being—animals, natural formations, and elements—so one should perceive suffering in a broad, comparative way rather than narrowly.
In the Śānti Parva instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīṣma continues a didactic catalogue describing how different beings exhibit their own characteristic ‘fever’: elephants through head-heat, mountains through śilājatu exudation, waters through nīlikā, and serpents through the shedding of skin.