Shloka 38
भृगु–भरद्वाजसंवादः: वर्णभेदस्य कर्माधारितव्याख्या
Bhrigu–Bharadvaja Dialogue: A Karma-Based Account of Varṇa
न पुल्कसो न चाण्डाल आत्मान त्यक्तुमिच्छति । तया तुष्ट: स्वया योन्या मायां पश्यस्व यादृशीम्
na pulkaso na cāṇḍāla ātmānaṁ tyaktum icchati | tayā tuṣṭaḥ svayā yonyā māyāṁ paśyasva yādṛśīm ||
ビーシュマは言った。「プルカシャであれチャンダーラであれ、誰も自らの身を捨てようとはしない。与えられた出生と身分に満ち足り、己の系譜のうちに安んずる。見よ——これぞ主のマーヤー、驚くべき迷妄の力であり、衆生をして割り当てられた境遇に執着させるのだ。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights how beings cling to embodied life and to the circumstances of their birth, taking satisfaction in what is familiar. This attachment is presented as an effect of māyā—an obscuring power that makes one identify with one’s station and resist renunciation or transformation.
In the didactic discourse of the Śānti Parva, Bhishma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the workings of human attachment. He uses socially marginal examples (Pulkaśa and Cāṇḍāla) to show that the impulse to preserve one’s life and accept one’s birth-condition is universal, and he points to the Lord’s māyā as the underlying force.