Shloka 28
Karma, Preta-gati, and the Continuity of Phala
Mārkaṇḍeya’s Instruction
एवमेतन्मतं सर्प ताभ्यां हीनं॑ न विद्यते | यथा शीतोष्णयोर्मध्ये भवेन्नोष्णं न शीतता,अब तुमने जो यह कहा कि सुख-दुःखसे रहित कोई दूसरा वेद्य तत्त्व है ही नहीं, सो तुम्हारा यह मत ठीक है। सुख-दुःखसे शून्य कोई पदार्थ नहीं है। किंतु एक ऐसा पद है भी। जिस प्रकार बर्फमें उष्णता और अग्निमें शीतलता कहीं नहीं रहती, उसी प्रकार जो वेद्य-पद है, वह वास्तवमें सुख-दुःखसे रहित ही है। नागराज! मेरा तो यही विचार है, फिर आप जैसा मानें
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | evam etan mataṃ sarpa tābhyāṃ hīnaṃ na vidyate | yathā śītoṣṇayor madhye bhaven noṣṇaṃ na śītatā |
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “So it is, O serpent; your view is sound—that among knowable things nothing is found that is wholly devoid of those two, pleasure and pain. Yet there is also a highest state to be known: in truth it is free from pleasure and pain. Just as heat is not present in ice, and coolness is not present in fire, so too that supreme knowable state is genuinely beyond both happiness and suffering. This is my considered understanding, O king of serpents; accept it as you see fit.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Yudhiṣṭhira distinguishes ordinary experience—where pleasure and pain are inseparable—from a supreme knowable state that is truly beyond both. Using the analogy of ice lacking heat and fire lacking cold, he argues that liberation/ultimate knowledge is not a mixture of sukha and duḥkha but a transcendence of them.
In a philosophical exchange with a serpent (Nāga), Yudhiṣṭhira responds to the serpent’s claim about the inescapability of pleasure and pain in the knowable world. He concedes the point for worldly objects and experiences, but asserts that there exists a higher ‘knowable state’ that is free from both, presenting his view respectfully to the Nāga.