Shloka 9
Adhyāya 6: Vidura’s Saṃsāra-Upamā
The Allegory of the Well, Time, and Desire
कूपमध्ये च या जाता वल्ली यत्र स मानव: । प्रताने लम्बते लग्नो जीविताशा शरीरिणाम्,कुँएके मध्यभागमें जो लता उत्पन्न हुई बतायी गयी है, जिसको पकड़कर वह मनुष्य लटक रहा है, वह देहधारियोंके जीवनकी आशा ही है
kūpa-madhye ca yā jātā vallī yatra sa mānavaḥ | pratāne lambate lagno jīvitāśā śarīriṇām ||
That creeper which has sprung up in the middle of the well—clinging to whose spreading tendril the man hangs suspended—represents the embodied being’s very hope of continuing life, a fragile support amid peril.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Life in saṃsāra is precarious: the embodied being survives by clinging to a slender, uncertain support—mere ‘hope of life’—so one should cultivate discernment and detachment rather than complacent reliance on fragile worldly props.
Vidura continues an allegorical description: a man has fallen into a well and hangs onto a vine’s tendril; that vine is identified as the being’s hope to keep living, emphasizing how survival depends on tenuous conditions.