Shloka 110
नारद–शुक संवादः
Impermanence, Svabhāva, and Śuka’s Resolve for Yoga
दुर्ग जन्म निधनं चापि राजन् न भौतिक ज्ञानविदो वदन्ति | यज्ैस्तपो भिनिययमैर््रतैश्व दिवं समासाद्य पतन्ति भूमौ
durgaṃ janma nidhanaṃ cāpi rājan na bhautikaṃ jñānavido vadanti | yajñais tapobhir niyamair vratais ca divaṃ samāsādya patanti bhūmau ||
Bhishma said: “O King, the knowers of wisdom declare that embodied birth and death are a hard-to-cross fortress. By sacrifices, austerities, disciplines, and vows one may indeed reach heaven; yet when that merit is exhausted, one falls again to the earth. Therefore these ritual means do not finally carry a person beyond the peril of worldly becoming.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Ritual merit (yajña, tapas, niyama, vrata) can lead to heaven, but it is not final liberation; when merit ends, one returns to earthly existence. True transcendence of birth and death requires wisdom that goes beyond merely accumulating punya.
In the Śānti Parva instruction, Bhīṣma continues advising King Yudhiṣṭhira on the limits of ritual action and the need for higher knowledge: heaven is temporary, while the problem of repeated birth and death remains unless one seeks a liberating insight.