Shloka 12
शोक-शमन उपदेशः
Instruction on the Pacification of Grief
यथा च मृण्मयं भाण्डं चक्रारूढं विपद्यते | किंचित् प्रक्रियमाणं वा कृतमात्रमथापि वा
yathā ca mṛṇmayaṃ bhāṇḍaṃ cakrārūḍhaṃ vipadyate | kiṃcit prakriyamāṇaṃ vā kṛtamātram athāpi vā ||
Just as an earthen vessel, set upon the potter’s wheel, may come to ruin—whether it is only slightly being shaped, or still in the process of being formed, or even just newly finished—so too can what is fragile and newly made be quickly destroyed. Vidura evokes this image to underscore the precariousness of embodied life and the ease with which prosperity, plans, and even completed works can be overturned by sudden calamity.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches the principle of impermanence: like a clay pot on the wheel, life and human undertakings—whether just begun, still forming, or newly completed—can be destroyed suddenly. The ethical implication is to cultivate steadiness, humility, and dharmic restraint amid success and disaster.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vidura speaks in a consolatory and admonitory mode. He uses a vivid everyday metaphor (a pot on the potter’s wheel) to frame the devastation and grief as part of the fragile condition of worldly existence.