Shloka 118
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
कललादू बुदबुदोत्पत्ति: पेशी च बुद्बुदात् स्मृता । पेश्यास्त्वड्राभिनिर्वत्तिनखरोमाणि चाड्रत:
kalalād budbudotpattiḥ peśī ca budbudāt smṛtā | peśyās tv aṅgābhinirvṛttir nakharomāṇi cāṅgataḥ ||
Bhīṣma dit : «Du kalala naît une forme semblable à une bulle ; de cette bulle, dit-on, surgit la masse charnue (peśī). De la peśī se forment les membres, et des membres apparaissent les ongles et les poils.»
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse outlines a traditional sequence of bodily development—kalala to budbuda to peśī to limbs, then hair and nails—prompting ethical humility and detachment by showing the body as a constructed, impermanent product of natural order rather than a basis for ego.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on reflective knowledge and right understanding; here he describes stages of embryonic formation as part of a broader discourse meant to cultivate discernment about the body and the self.