Shloka 124
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
तस्याप्येवंप्रभावस्य सदश्चव॒स्येव धावत: । अजसं सर्वलोकस्य कः कुतो वा न वा कुत:
bhīṣma uvāca | tasyāpy evaṃprabhāvasya sadaś ca vaśyeva dhāvataḥ | ajasaṃ sarvalokasya kaḥ kuto vā na vā kutaḥ ||
Even for this world, whose power is such—rushing on like a well-trained horse under control—moving ceaselessly from one condition to another, no meaningful question can be framed: “Who comes from where, and who does not? Whose is this, and whose is it not? From what is it born, and from what is it not?” In such a perpetually driven flow, fixed ownership, origin, and lasting relation are not truly graspable.
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Because the world is in constant, forceful motion—shifting from state to state—questions of fixed origin, ownership, and enduring relation (“who is from where,” “whose is this”) lose their ultimate footing; the teaching points toward non-attachment and insight into impermanence.
In Shanti Parva’s instruction, Bhishma continues a philosophical explanation to Yudhishthira, using the simile of a swift, well-controlled horse to describe the world’s relentless movement and to undermine ordinary assumptions about stable identity and possession.