Shloka 4
Saṃsāra-mārga-vistaraḥ
Vidura’s Expanded Account of the Path
एवं संसारपययि गर्भवासेषु भारत । कुर्वन्ति दुर्बुधा वासं मुच्यन्ते तत्र पण्डिता:,नरेश्वर! जिस प्रकार किसी लंबे रास्तेपर चलने-वाला पुरुष परिश्रमसे थककर बीचमें कहीं-कहीं विश्रामके लिये ठहर जाता है, उसी प्रकार इस संसारयात्रामें चलते हुए अज्ञानी पुरुष विश्रामके लिये गर्भवास किया करते हैं। भारत! किंतु विद्वान् पुरुष इस संसारसे मुक्त हो जाते हैं
evaṁ saṁsāraparyayi garbhavāseṣu bhārata | kurvanti durbudhā vāsaṁ mucyante tatra paṇḍitāḥ ||
Vidura says: “O Bhārata, in the course of this wandering journey called saṁsāra, the foolish make their ‘halts’ in womb-existences, as if stopping to rest along a long road. But the wise do not take such resting-places; they become released from saṁsāra itself.”
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Rebirth is not a true ‘rest’ but a continuation of saṁsāra’s hardship; only wisdom and discernment lead to liberation (mokṣa), ending the cycle rather than pausing within it.
In Strī Parva’s grief-filled aftermath of the war, Vidura counsels the Kuru elder by turning attention from sorrow to spiritual perspective: he frames embodied life and repeated birth as a weary journey, urging the pursuit of release rather than further entanglement.