Shloka 18
मनुरुवाच — इन्द्रिय-मनः-ज्ञान-क्रमः
Manu on the hierarchy of senses, mind, and knowledge
अरागमोहो निर्दनद्धी न शोचति न सज्जते । न कर्ता कारणानां च न कार्याणामिति स्थिति:
arāgamohō nirdvanddhī na śocati na sajjate | na kartā kāraṇānāṁ ca na kāryāṇām iti sthitiḥ ||
Dijo Bhīṣma: Quien está libre de pasión y de ilusión, y ha trascendido los pares de opuestos, ni se aflige ni se apega. Verse a sí mismo como no hacedor de las causas ni agente de los efectos: ése es el estado asentado de la firmeza interior.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches inner steadiness through detachment: freedom from attachment and delusion, transcendence of dualities, and a non-doer perspective in which one does not identify the self as the agent behind causes or effects—leading to non-grief and non-clinging.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and liberation-oriented conduct. Here he describes the marks of a stabilized, wise person—one who remains unshaken by opposites and does not appropriate actions and outcomes as ‘mine’.