Shloka 9
Saṃsāra-mārga-vistaraḥ
Vidura’s Expanded Account of the Path
अथापि तैरविमुच्येत व्याधिभि: पुरुषो नृप । आवृणोत्येव तं पश्चाज्जरा रूपविनाशिनी
athāpi tair avimucyeta vyādhibhiḥ puruṣo nṛpa | āvṛṇoty eva taṃ paścāj jarā rūpavināśinī ||
O king, even if a man were to escape those diseases, old age surely overtakes him afterward, destroying his beauty and outward form. Vidura underscores the inescapable decline of the body, urging sober reflection and ethical steadiness amid grief and upheaval.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even if one avoids illness, old age inevitably arrives and erodes beauty and bodily strength; therefore one should not cling to the body or external appearances, but cultivate steadiness, discernment, and dharmic conduct.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of war and mourning, Vidura addresses the king with sobering counsel, pointing to the unavoidable forces of disease and especially old age to frame human life as fragile and transient.