Shloka 42
Śakra–Namuci-saṃvāda: Śoka-nivāraṇa and Daiva-vicāra
Indra and Namuci on grief, composure, and inevitability
यथार्णवगता नद्यो व्यक्तीर्जदगति नाम च | नदाश्न ता नियच्छन्ति तादृश: सत्त्वसंक्षय:
yathārṇavagatā nadyo vyaktīr jaḍagati-nāma ca | nadāś ca tā niyacchanti tādṛśaḥ sattva-saṅkṣayaḥ ||
Bhīṣma dit : «De même que les rivières, parvenues à l’océan, renoncent à leur identité séparée—nom et forme distincte—et de même que les grands fleuves absorbent en eux les ruisseaux plus petits, ainsi le soi individuel, lorsque ses conditions limitantes sont épuisées, se fond dans le Soi suprême. Cette dissolution de la séparation est la délivrance.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation (mokṣa) is portrayed as the ending of separateness: when the conditions that sustain individual identity are exhausted, the jīva’s distinct ‘name and form’ no longer stand apart and it abides as one with the Supreme—like rivers losing their separate identity upon entering the ocean.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on the highest good. Here he uses a natural metaphor—rivers merging into the ocean and larger rivers absorbing smaller ones—to explain the idea of final release and the dissolution of individual limitation.