Shloka 12
स्त्रीपर्व — नवमोऽध्यायः | Dhṛtarāṣṭra summons the Kuru women; the city departs in collective lamentation
न शोचन् मृतमन्वेति न शोचन् ग्रियते नरः । एवं सांसिद्धिके लोके किमर्थमनुशोचसि,“शोक करनेवाला मनुष्य न तो मरे हुएके साथ जाता है और न स्वयं ही मरता है। जब लोककी यही स्वाभाविक स्थिति है, तब आप किसलिये बारंबार शोक कर रहे हैं?
na śocan mṛtam anveti na śocan mriyate naraḥ | evaṃ sāṃsiddhike loke kim artham anuśocasi ||
A man who grieves does not follow the dead, nor does he himself die by grieving. Since this is the natural order of the world as it stands, why do you continue to lament again and again?
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Grief does not change the fact of death or reunite one with the deceased; recognizing the world’s inevitable order (death as a natural certainty) is urged as a basis for restraint and composure.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation context after the great war, the narrator’s report includes a consolatory maxim addressed to a grieving person, discouraging repeated mourning by appealing to the inevitability of death.