Shloka 47

गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow

Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode

Devanagari script

शरीरमिह सत्त्वेन न तस्य परिकृष्यते । ज्येष्ठमध्यावरं सत्त्वं तुल्यसत्त्वं प्रमोदते

Transliteration

śarīram iha sattvena na tasya parikṛṣyate | jyeṣṭha-madhyāvaraṁ sattvaṁ tulya-sattvaṁ pramodate ||

Translation

ビーシュマは言った。「この世において、人の身体は、生来の気質から、ただ洗練された、あるいは『学識ある』見解を得たというだけで引き離されることはない。気質が上であれ中であれ下であれ、いかなる性分が身と心を形づくったにせよ、人はその性分こそを心地よいものと感じ、己に似たものを喜びとする。」

Word by Word

• {'śarīram': 'body

• embodied constitution', 'iha': 'here

• in this world', 'sattvena': 'by sattva

• by one’s disposition/temperament (also ‘purity’ in guṇa-theory, context-dependent)', 'na': 'not', 'tasya': 'of him/of that person', 'parikṛṣyate': 'is dragged away

• is forcibly altered/removed from its natural course', 'jyeṣṭha': 'superior

• excellent', 'madhya': 'middling

• moderate', 'avara': 'inferior

• lower', 'sattvam': 'nature

• disposition', 'tulya-sattvam': 'one of similar nature

• what matches one’s disposition', 'pramodate': 'rejoices

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Innate disposition (sattva/temperament) strongly conditions embodied life; mere acquisition of ‘learned’ or doctrinal understanding does not automatically uproot one’s natural tendencies. Ethical cultivation must therefore be gradual and practice-based, not only intellectual.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhīṣma’s instruction discourse (Anuśāsana Parva), he explains to his listener that people naturally gravitate toward what matches their own temperament, and that the body-personality complex does not readily shift away from its inborn constitution simply through abstract knowledge.