Shloka 60
युधिछ्िर उवाच माता गुरुतरा भूमे: खातू् पितोच्चतरस्तथा । मन: शीघ्रतरं वाताच्चिन्ता बहुतरी तृणात्,युधिष्ठिर बोले--माताका गौरव पृथ्वीसे भी अधिक है। पिता आकाशसे भी ऊँचा है। मन वायुसे भी तेज चलनेवाला है और चिन्ता तिनकोंसे भी अधिक असंख्य एवं अनन्त है
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | mātā gurutarā bhūmeḥ khāt pitor uccataras tathā | manaḥ śīghrataraṃ vātāc cintā bahutarī tṛṇāt |
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “A mother is weightier—more venerable—than the earth itself. A father is higher than the sky. The mind moves swifter than the wind, and anxiety is more numerous and pervasive than blades of grass, without end.”
युधिछ्िर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses vivid comparisons to teach values and inner discipline: parents deserve the highest reverence (mother as 'heavier' than earth, father as 'higher' than sky), while the mind’s speed and the boundlessness of anxiety warn that unchecked thought can outpace external forces and multiply suffering—hence the need for restraint, gratitude, and steadiness in dharma.
In the Vana Parva’s reflective, instruction-heavy setting, Yudhiṣṭhira speaks in a didactic tone, offering aphoristic observations about familial reverence and the nature of the mind. The line functions as moral instruction within a broader dialogue on right conduct and the challenges of human life.