Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 27
अव्यक्त-मानस-सृष्टिवादः
Doctrine of Creation from the Unmanifest ‘Mānasa’
पुत्रनाशे वित्तनाशे ज्ञातिसम्बन्धिनामपि । प्राप्पते सुमहद् दुखं दावाग्निप्रतिमं विभो । दैवायत्तमिदं सर्व सुखदुःखे भवाभवौ
putranāśe vittanāśe jñātisambandhinām api | prāpnoti sumahad duḥkhaṃ dāvāgnipratimaṃ vibho | daivāyattam idaṃ sarvaṃ sukhaduḥkhe bhavābhavau ||
Le brāhmane dit : «Quand on perd un fils, quand on perd la richesse, et même quand se brisent les liens avec les proches, une peine immense surgit, pareille à un feu de forêt, ô puissant. Pourtant tout cela dépend du destin : la joie et la douleur, et même l’élévation et la chute dans l’existence mondaine.»
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the intensity of grief caused by loss (child, wealth, kinship) and frames such experiences as governed by daiva (destiny), urging a reflective, less ego-centered response to happiness and suffering and to one’s worldly rise and decline.
In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, a Brāhmaṇa speaker addresses a powerful listener (“vibho”), describing how devastating losses ignite grief like a forest fire, then broadens the point into a moral-philosophical reflection that life’s gains and reversals are fate-dependent.