Shloka 151
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
हतो देश: पुरं दग्धं प्रधान: कुञ्जरो मृतः । लोकसाधारणेष्वेषु मिथ्याज्ञानेन तप्यते,“हाय! देश नष्ट हो गया, सारा नगर आगसे जल गया और वह प्रधान हाथी मर गया।' यद्यपि ये सब बातें सब लोगोंके लिये साधारण हैं--सबपर समान रूपसे ये कष्ट प्राप्त होते हैं तथापि राजा अपने मिथ्याज्ञानके कारण केवल अपनी ही हानि समझकर संतप्त होता रहता है
hato deśaḥ puraṁ dagdhaṁ pradhānaḥ kuñjaro mṛtaḥ | lokasādhāraṇeṣv eṣu mithyājñānena tapyate ||
Bhīṣma said: “The land is ruined, the city has been burned, and the chief elephant is dead.” Although such calamities are common to all people—afflictions that can befall anyone—the king, through false understanding, grieves as though it were only his own personal loss and continues to burn inwardly with sorrow.
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Suffering intensifies when one appropriates universal misfortunes as uniquely “mine.” Bhīṣma points to mithyājñāna—mistaken self-centered cognition—as the cause of prolonged grief; clearer understanding sees loss as part of the common human condition and supports steadiness and right judgment.
Bhīṣma cites a set of public calamities—ruined land, a burned city, and the death of a prized chief elephant—to illustrate how a king becomes inwardly tormented, not merely by events themselves, but by interpreting them through delusion as a purely personal catastrophe.