Shloka 13
पांसुभि: समभिच्छन्न: शून्यागारप्रतिश्रय: । वृक्षमूलनिकेतो वा त्यक्तसर्वप्रियाप्रिय:,शरीरपर धूल पड़ी होगी और सूने घरोंमें मेरा निवास होगा अथवा किसी वृक्षके नीचे उसकी जड़में ही पड़ा रहूँगा। प्रिय और अप्रियका सारा विचार छोड़ दूँगा
pāṃsubhiḥ samabhicchannaḥ śūnyāgāra-pratiśrayaḥ | vṛkṣamūla-niketo vā tyakta-sarva-priyāpriyaḥ ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Covered all over with dust, taking shelter in deserted houses, or else dwelling at the foot of a tree—lying there at its very root—I shall abandon every calculation of what is dear and what is not. Thus will I live, renouncing attachment and aversion, accepting hardship as my chosen discipline.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches deliberate detachment: the aspirant should relinquish the inner habit of sorting experience into ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ (priya–apriya). Ethical steadiness is strengthened by accepting austere living—dust, solitude, and minimal shelter—so that judgment and action are not driven by personal preference.
Yudhiṣṭhira speaks of withdrawing from worldly comforts and social life. He imagines living like an ascetic—taking refuge in abandoned places or under a tree—signaling a resolve to endure hardship and to abandon attachment and aversion as part of his moral and spiritual response to the circumstances being discussed in Śānti Parva.