Shloka 191
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
यथा शाून््ये पुरागारे भिक्षुरेकां निशां वसेत् । तथाहं त्वच्छरीरे5स्मिन्निमां वत्स्यामि शर्वरीम्
yathā śūnye purāgāre bhikṣur ekāṃ niśāṃ vaset | tathāhaṃ tvaccharīre 'smin nimāṃ vatsyāmi śarvarīm ||
Bhīṣma said: “Just as a mendicant might spend a single night in an abandoned house within a city, so too will I pass this night within your body—only as a temporary lodging.”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a renunciant’s brief stay in an empty house as a metaphor for non-attachment: one should regard embodied existence and worldly residence as temporary, without possessiveness, emphasizing detachment and ethical restraint.
Bhīṣma speaks in the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, employing a vivid simile to describe a short, non-possessive ‘staying’—framing the body as a transient lodging rather than a permanent self.