Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 27
अव्यक्त-मानस-सृष्टिवादः
Doctrine of Creation from the Unmanifest ‘Mānasa’
पुत्रनाशे वित्तनाशे ज्ञातिसम्बन्धिनामपि । प्राप्पते सुमहद् दुखं दावाग्निप्रतिमं विभो । दैवायत्तमिदं सर्व सुखदुःखे भवाभवौ
putranāśe vittanāśe jñātisambandhinām api | prāpnoti sumahad duḥkhaṃ dāvāgnipratimaṃ vibho | daivāyattam idaṃ sarvaṃ sukhaduḥkhe bhavābhavau ||
ब्राह्मण ने कहा—पुत्र के नाश, धन के नाश और कुटुम्बी-स्वजनों के सम्बन्ध टूटने पर, हे विभो, दावानल के समान जलाने वाला अत्यन्त महान् दुःख प्राप्त होता है। पर यह सब दैवाधीन है—सुख-दुःख तथा संसार में उत्थान-पतन भी।
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the intensity of grief caused by loss (child, wealth, kinship) and frames such experiences as governed by daiva (destiny), urging a reflective, less ego-centered response to happiness and suffering and to one’s worldly rise and decline.
In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, a Brāhmaṇa speaker addresses a powerful listener (“vibho”), describing how devastating losses ignite grief like a forest fire, then broadens the point into a moral-philosophical reflection that life’s gains and reversals are fate-dependent.