Shloka 85
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
इच्छाद्वेष भवैर्दु:खै: प्रकर्षो यत्र जायते । तत्र या नृपते वृत्तिस्तत् प्रयोजनमिष्यते
icchādveṣa-bhavaiḥ duḥkhaiḥ prakarṣo yatra jāyate | tatra yā nṛpate vṛttis tat prayojanam iṣyate, nareśvara ||
Bhīṣma dit : Ô roi, là où, parmi les souffrances nées du désir ou de l’aversion, une prédominance surgit — au point qu’une forme de peine l’emporte —, la tendance mentale (vṛtti) qui alors vient au premier plan est ce que l’on tient pour le « prayojana » (le but), ô seigneur des hommes.
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma explains that what we call a person’s ‘purpose’ is often the dominant impulse that arises when desire or aversion generates suffering; the strongest pain-condition shapes the mind’s prevailing tendency (vṛtti), and that tendency functions as the operative aim (prayojana).
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs the king on dharma and inner discipline. Here he analyzes how desire and hatred produce suffering and how, in response, a particular disposition becomes dominant—clarifying the psychological basis of human aims and conduct.