Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 22

Devanagari script

सुखादेव परं दुःखं दुःखादप्यपरं सुखम्‌ । दृश्यते हि महाप्राज्ञ नियतं वै स्वभावत:

Transliteration

sukhād eva paraṃ duḥkhaṃ duḥkhād apy aparaṃ sukham | dṛśyate hi mahāprājña niyataṃ vai svabhāvataḥ ||

Translation

महाप्राज्ञ! सुख से ही बड़ा दुःख उत्पन्न होता है और दुःख से भी आगे चलकर सुख उत्पन्न होता है—यह देखा जाता है। स्वभाव के अनुसार सुख-दुःख का यह क्रम मानो नियत है। विषयसुखों में आसक्त लोग सुख से ही घोर दुःख में गिरते हैं, और जो तपस्या-नियम से कष्ट सहते हैं, वे उसी कष्ट से सुख प्राप्त करते हैं।

Word by Word

• {'sukhāt': 'from happiness/pleasure', 'eva': 'indeed

• precisely', 'paraṃ': 'higher

• further', 'duḥkham': 'sorrow

• suffering', 'duḥkhāt': 'from suffering', 'api': 'also

• even', 'aparam': 'other

• further', 'sukham': 'happiness

• well-being', 'dṛśyate': 'is seen

• is observed', 'hi': 'for

• indeed', 'mahāprājña': 'O great sage/wise one (vocative)', 'niyatam': 'fixed

• regular', 'vai': 'indeed (emphatic particle)', 'svabhāvataḥ': 'by nature

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vyasa (Veda Vyasa)
• mahāprājña (addressed wise person)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Pleasure and pain are interlinked: attachment to sense-pleasures tends to culminate in suffering, while disciplined endurance of hardship (tapas, restraint) can mature into lasting well-being. The verse frames this as a regular pattern rooted in human nature (svabhāva).

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction-focused discourse, Vyāsa addresses a ‘greatly wise’ listener and states an observed moral-psychological principle: the pursuit of indulgent pleasure often reverses into misery, whereas voluntary hardship undertaken for discipline and virtue can yield happiness.