Shloka 93
इष्टार्थो विद्यया होव न विद्यां प्रजह्ेन्नर: । जिस प्रकार पानी पीनेसे मनुष्यकी प्यास अवश्य बुझ जाती है
iṣṭārtho vidyayā hova na vidyāṃ prajahennaraḥ |
Yudhiṣṭhira berkata: “Seandainya tujuan yang diinginkan selalu pasti tercapai melalui ilmu, tak seorang pun akan meninggalkan atau mengabaikan pengetahuan. Sebagaimana minum air niscaya memadamkan dahaga, demikian pula—jika belajar tanpa gagal menghasilkan buah yang diharapkan—setiap orang akan berpegang teguh padanya.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Knowledge (vidyā) is valuable, but it does not mechanically guarantee the attainment of one’s desired ends. If learning unfailingly produced success, no one would ever neglect it; the fact that people do neglect it shows that outcomes depend on additional factors beyond mere learning.
In Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction-focused setting, Yudhiṣṭhira reflects on the relationship between learning and the fulfillment of aims, using an everyday analogy (water quenching thirst) to argue that knowledge is not an automatic, invariable means to every desired result.