Shloka 5
Adhyāya 240: Indriya–Manas–Buddhi–Ātman — The Inner Hierarchy and Restraint (इन्द्रिय-मनस्-बुद्धि-आत्म-क्रमः)
काम॑ क्रोधं च लोभं च भयं स्वप्रं च पजचमम् । क्रोधं शमेन जयति काम॑ संकल्पवर्जनात्
vyāsa uvāca | kāmaṁ krodhaṁ ca lobhaṁ ca bhayaṁ svapnaṁ ca pañcamam | krodhaṁ śamena jayati kāmaṁ saṅkalpa-varjanāt | sattva-saṁsevanād dhīro nidrām ucchettum arhati |
Vyāsa dit : «Désir, colère, avidité, peur et—cinquièmement—sommeil : tels sont les cinq défauts que les sages désignent. Il faut les déraciner entièrement. Parmi eux, la colère se vainc par le calme de la retenue; le désir se surmonte en renonçant aux intentions d’abandon; et l’homme ferme, en cultivant le sattva (clarté et pureté), devient apte à trancher la torpeur du sommeil.»
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a practical ethics of inner conquest: identify five major inner obstacles—desire, anger, greed, fear, and sleep—and uproot them. It prescribes specific remedies: anger is subdued through śama (mental restraint), desire through abandoning desire-driven intentions (saṅkalpa), and sleep through sustained cultivation of sattva (clarity and purity).
In Śānti Parva’s instruction-oriented setting, Vyāsa speaks as a teacher, laying out a concise yogic-ethical regimen. Rather than describing an external event, the passage advances the didactic discourse on self-mastery and the disciplines that support dharma and inner peace.