Shloka 23
प्रजाविसर्ग-तत्त्वनिर्णयः | Cosmogony of Elemental Emergence
Bharadvāja–Bhṛgu Dialogue
मृत्युर्जरा च व्याधिश्व दु:खं चानेककारणम् | अनुषक्तं यदा देहे किं स्वस्थ इव तिष्ठसि
mṛtyur jarā ca vyādhiś ca duḥkhaṃ cānekakāraṇam | anuṣaktaṃ yadā dehe kiṃ svastha iva tiṣṭhasi pitāji ||
Bhīṣma dit : «Ô père vénérable ! Quand la mort, la vieillesse, la maladie et les souffrances nées de multiples causes demeurent sans cesse attachées au corps, pourquoi restes-tu assis comme si tu étais bien portant ?»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse urges sober awareness of the body’s inherent fragility: death, aging, disease, and multifaceted suffering are inseparable from embodied life. Therefore one should not live in complacent ‘health-as-normal’ forgetfulness, but act wisely and ethically with remembrance of impermanence.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction within the Śānti Parva, he addresses an elder as “father,” challenging him for behaving as if secure and well despite the constant presence of mortality and bodily afflictions. The line functions as a moral wake-up call within a didactic discourse.