Shloka 11
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 40 — Vidura’s Ethical Counsel and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Fatalistic Turn
य॑ श्रुत्वायं मनुष्येन्द्र: सर्वदुःखातिगो भवेत् | लाभालाभौ प्रियद्वेष्यौ यथैनं न जरान्तकौ
yaḥ śrutvāyaṃ manuṣyendraḥ sarvaduḥkhātigo bhavet | lābhālābhau priyadveṣyau yathainaṃ na jarāntakau ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Having heard this, a king among men would rise beyond all sorrow. Gain and loss, the pleasant and the unpleasant would no longer overpower him—just as old age and death do not overcome one who is thus established.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse praises inner steadiness: one who truly assimilates the teaching becomes free from being shaken by opposites—gain/loss and pleasant/unpleasant—thus transcending sorrow through equanimity and self-mastery.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, concludes a point by stating the transformative effect of the instruction just given: hearing and internalizing it makes even a ruler rise above grief, no longer dominated by worldly fluctuations.