Shloka 81
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
ज्ञान ज्ञेयेषु भिन्नेषु यदा भेदेन वर्तते । तत्रातिशायिनी बुद्धिस्तत् सौक्ष्म्यमिति वर्तते
jñāna-jñeyeṣu bhinneṣu yadā bhedena vartate | tatrātiśāyinī buddhis tat saukṣmyam iti vartate ||
Bhīṣma dit : «Lorsque, parmi des objets de connaissance distincts, la cognition opère par distinctions nettes — “ceci est un pot, ceci est une étoffe” — alors l’intellect qui excelle à trancher avec justesse en de telles situations s’appelle la subtilité (saukṣmya).»
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Saukṣmya (subtlety) is defined as the superior discriminative intellect that can correctly distinguish among multiple distinct objects of knowledge and arrive at an accurate determination.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and wisdom, Bhīṣma is explaining a technical quality of intellect: how true understanding functions when many knowable things appear and one must judge precisely by distinguishing them.