Shloka 11
Adhyāya 353 — Kathā-prāmāṇya (Authority of Transmission) and the Brāhmaṇa’s Ascetic Resolve
हित्वा गुणमयं सर्व कर्म हित्वा शुभाशुभम् । उभे सत्यानृते त्यक्त्वा एवं भवति निर्गुण:
hitvā guṇamayaṃ sarvaṃ karma hitvā śubhāśubham | ubhe satyānṛte tyaktvā evaṃ bhavati nirguṇaḥ ||
Bhīṣma dijo: «Abandonando toda acción constituida por los guṇa, renunciando a los actos tenidos por auspiciosos e inauspiciosos, y soltando tanto la “verdad” como la “falsedad” en cuanto posturas que atan—solo así el buscador se vuelve nirguṇa, libre del dominio de las cualidades.»
पितामह उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation is presented as freedom from attachment to guṇa-conditioned action and its moral accounting (merit/demerit). The verse urges a shift beyond dualistic clinging—such as identifying oneself through ‘I am truthful’ versus ‘I am false’—toward a state of non-identification where actions and labels no longer bind.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the path to peace after the war. Here he articulates a renunciatory, mokṣa-oriented teaching: the seeker becomes ‘nirguṇa’ by relinquishing attachment to all guṇa-based activity and the dualities that sustain bondage.