Shloka 182
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
पृथक्त्वादाश्रमाणां च वर्णन्यत्वे तथैव च । परस्परपृथक्त्वाच्च कथं ते वर्णसंकर:,सारे आश्रम पृथक्-पृथक् हैं तथा चारों वर्ण भी भिन्न हैं। जब इनमें परस्पर पार्थक्य बना हुआ है, तब पृथक्त्वको जाननेवाले आपके वर्णका संकर कैसे हो सकता है?
pṛthaktvād āśramāṇāṁ ca varṇānyatve tathaiva ca | paraspara-pṛthaktvāc ca kathaṁ te varṇa-saṅkaraḥ ||
Bhīṣma dijo: «Puesto que los āśrama son distintos entre sí, y del mismo modo los cuatro varṇa son diferentes, y puesto que hay separación mutua entre ellos, ¿cómo podría surgir para ti—que comprendes su distinción—una “mezcla de varṇa”? Si se mantienen sus límites, ¿con qué fundamento puede alegarse confusión del orden social y ético?»
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma argues that when āśramas and varṇas are clearly distinguished and their boundaries are understood, the claim of inevitable varṇa-saṅkara (social/ethical confusion through intermixture) lacks basis; the point is to ground social-ethical anxieties in careful reasoning rather than assumption.
In the Śānti Parva’s dharma-discourse, Bhīṣma addresses a concern about varṇa-saṅkara and challenges it by pointing to the conceptual and practical separations between āśramas and varṇas, pressing the interlocutor to justify how ‘mixing’ could occur if distinctions are maintained.