Shloka 17
देवतापितृप्रश्नः — Nārada at Badarīāśrama: the ultimate referent of daiva and pitṛ worship
काम क्रोध॑ च मृत्युं च पञ्चेन्द्रियजलां नदीम् । नावं धृतिमयीं कृत्वा जन्मदुर्गाणि संतर,काम, क्रोध, मृत्यु और जिसमें पाँच इन्द्रियरूपी जल भरा हुआ है, ऐसी विषयासक्तिरूपी नदीको तुम सात्विकी धृतिरूप नौकाका आश्रय ले पार कर लो और इस प्रकार जन्म-मृत्युरूपी दुर्गण संकटसे पार हो जाओ
vyāsa uvāca | kāmaṁ krodhaṁ ca mṛtyuṁ ca pañcendriyajalāṁ nadīm | nāvaṁ dhṛtimayīṁ kṛtvā janmadurgāṇi santara ||
Vyāsa dit : «Le désir, la colère et la mort forment un fleuve dont les eaux sont les cinq sens. Fais de la fermeté (dhṛti) ta barque et traverse-le ; tu franchiras ainsi les redoutables forteresses des renaissances répétées.»
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Sense-driven life is portrayed as a dangerous river fed by the five senses, intensified by desire and anger, and ending in death. The practical remedy is dhṛti—steady moral and spiritual resolve—which functions as the ‘boat’ enabling one to cross beyond the hard-to-pass obstacles of repeated birth.
In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, Vyāsa delivers an instruction using a vivid metaphor: the listener is urged to treat desire, anger, and mortality as a perilous current and to rely on steadfastness to traverse the existential dangers associated with birth and death.