Shloka 178
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
परस्त्रीके स्पर्शका अनुभव करनेके कारण आप गार्हस्थ्यधर्मसे तो गिर गये और दुर्बोध एवं दुर्लभ मोक्ष भी नहीं पा सके, अतः केवल मोक्षकी बात करते हुए आप गार्हस्थ्य और मोक्ष दोनोंके बीचमें लटक रहे हैं ।।
bhīṣma uvāca | parastrīke sparśakā anubhava karaneke kāraṇa āpa gārhasthyadharmase to gir gaye aura durbodha evaṃ durlabha mokṣa bhī nahīṃ pā sake, ataḥ kevala mokṣakī bāta karate hue āpa gārhasthya aura mokṣa donoṃke bīcameṃ laṭaka rahe haiṃ || na hi muktasya muktena jñasy-aikatva-pṛthaktvayoḥ | bhāvābhāva-samāyoge jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ || jīvanmukta jñānīkā jīvanmukta jñānīke sātha, aikatvakā pṛthaktvake sātha tathā bhāva (ātmā) kā abhāva (prakṛti) ke sātha saṃyoga honepara varṇa-saṅkaratākī utpatti nahīṃ ho sakatī |
Bhishma said: “Because you have indulged in the experience of touching another man’s wife, you have fallen away from the duties of household life; yet you have also failed to attain the difficult and rare goal of liberation. Thus, speaking only of liberation, you hang suspended between the householder’s path and moksha. For there can be no ‘confusion of orders’ (varṇa-saṅkara) arising from the association of one liberated knower with another—nor from the relation of unity and difference, nor from the conjunction of being and non-being.”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma criticizes moral inconsistency: one who violates householder ethics (e.g., illicit contact with another’s wife) cannot claim the authority of renunciation or liberation. He also asserts that true liberated knowers do not generate social or metaphysical ‘confusion’; liberation and right knowledge are marked by clarity, not disorder.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction-setting, Bhishma addresses a questioner in a didactic tone, rebuking him for ethical lapse and for speaking of moksha without fulfilling either the discipline of household life or the rigor of genuine liberation.