Shloka 34
Saṃhāra-krama (The Sequence of Cosmic Dissolution) — Yājñavalkya’s Discourse
यथा च नावं कौन्तेय कर्णधार: समाहित: । महार्णवगतां शीघ्र॑ नयेत् पार्थिवसत्तम,कुन्तीकुमार! नृपश्रेष्ठ! जैसे सावधान नाविक समुद्रमें पड़ी हुई नौकाको शीघ्र ही किनारेपर लगा देता है, उसी प्रकार योगके अनुसार तत्त्वको जाननेवाला पुरुष समाधिके द्वारा मनको परमात्मामें लगाकर इस देहका त्याग करनेके अनन्तर दुर्गम स्थान (परमधाम) को प्राप्त होता है
yathā ca nāvaṁ kaunteya karṇadhāraḥ samāhitaḥ | mahārṇavagatāṁ śīghraṁ nayet pārthivasattama ||
Bhīṣma said: “O son of Kuntī, best among kings: just as a steady, attentive helmsman swiftly brings a boat that has entered the great ocean to its destination, so too a man who knows reality in accordance with yoga—fixing his mind in the Supreme Self through samādhi—after relinquishing this body, attains the hard-to-reach highest state.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Steady inner discipline is like skilled navigation: one who is composed and knows reality through yoga can fix the mind in the Supreme via samādhi and thereby reach the highest goal after leaving the body.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on higher dharma and spiritual means; here he uses the image of a helmsman guiding a boat across the ocean to illustrate how concentrated yogic knowledge guides the soul toward the supreme state.