Shloka 182
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
पृथक्त्वादाश्रमाणां च वर्णन्यत्वे तथैव च । परस्परपृथक्त्वाच्च कथं ते वर्णसंकर:
pṛthaktvād āśramāṇāṁ ca varṇānyatve tathaiva ca | paraspara-pṛthaktvāc ca kathaṁ te varṇa-saṅkaraḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Since the āśramas are distinct from one another, and likewise the four varṇas are different, and since there is mutual separation among them, how could ‘mixture of varṇas’ arise for you who understand their distinctness? If their boundaries are maintained, on what basis can confusion of social and ethical order be alleged?”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma argues that when āśramas and varṇas are clearly distinguished and their boundaries are understood, the claim of inevitable varṇa-saṅkara (social/ethical confusion through intermixture) lacks basis; the point is to ground social-ethical anxieties in careful reasoning rather than assumption.
In the Śānti Parva’s dharma-discourse, Bhīṣma addresses a concern about varṇa-saṅkara and challenges it by pointing to the conceptual and practical separations between āśramas and varṇas, pressing the interlocutor to justify how ‘mixing’ could occur if distinctions are maintained.