Shloka 69
Adhyātma–Adhibhūta–Adhidaivata Correspondences and the Triguṇa Lakṣaṇas (Śānti-parva 301)
हसितोत्क्ुष्टनिर्घोषं नानाज्ञानसुदुस्तरम् । रोदनाश्रुमलक्षारं संगत्यागपरायणम्
hasitotkuṣṭanirghoṣaṃ nānā-jñāna-sudustaram | rodanāśru-malakṣāraṃ saṅga-tyāga-parāyaṇam, śatru-sūdana |
भीष्म बोले—शत्रुसूदन! यह भवसागर हँसी और ऊँचे स्वर के आर्तनाद से गम्भीर गर्जना करता है; नाना प्रकार के अज्ञान से अत्यन्त दुस्तर बना है; रोदनजनित आँसू ही इसका मलिन खारा जल है; और आसक्तियों के त्याग में एकनिष्ठ होना ही इसका परम आश्रय—दूसरा तट—है।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Saṃsāra is portrayed as a perilous ocean whose turbulence is fueled by ignorance and emotional reactivity (laughter, cries, lamentation). The practical means of crossing is tyāga—letting go of saṅga (clinging/attachments)—which functions as the ‘other shore’ or highest refuge leading toward liberation.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira (with Arjuna addressed here by the epithet Śatru-sūdana) using an extended metaphor of the ‘world-ocean.’ This verse highlights specific features of that ocean—its roar, its briny tear-waters, and its near-impassability due to ignorance—before pointing to renunciation as the saving passage.