Shloka 15

राजधर्मप्रश्नः — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry into Rājadharma (Śānti-parva 56)

Devanagari script

साधारण द्वयं होतद्‌ दैवमुत्थानमेव च । पौरुषं हि परं मन्ये देवं निश्चितमुच्यते,यद्यपि कार्यकी सिद्धिमें प्रारब्ध और पुरुषार्थ--ये दोनों साधारण कारण माने गये हैं, तथापि मैं पुरुषार्थको ही प्रधान मानता हूँ। प्रारब्ध तो पहलेसे ही निश्चित बताया गया है

Transliteration

sādhāraṇaṃ dvayaṃ hy etad daivam utthānam eva ca | pauruṣaṃ hi paraṃ manye daivaṃ niścitam ucyate ||

Translation

Bhishma said: “In the accomplishment of any undertaking, two factors are commonly acknowledged as causes—destiny and personal effort. Yet I regard human effort as the higher principle; for ‘destiny’ is spoken of as something already fixed beforehand.”

Word by Word

• {'sādhāraṇam': 'common, generally accepted', 'dvayam': 'a pair, twofold', 'etad': 'this', 'daivam': 'destiny

• that which arises from the divine/previously ordained', 'utthānam': 'rising up

• personal effort', 'eva': 'indeed, precisely', 'ca': 'and', 'pauruṣam': 'human effort

• self-initiative', 'hi': 'indeed, for', 'param': 'higher, supreme, primary', 'manye': 'I think, I consider', 'niścitam': 'fixed, determined, settled', 'ucyate': 'is said, is called'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma