Shloka 124
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
तस्याप्येवंप्रभावस्य सदश्चव॒स्येव धावत: । अजसं सर्वलोकस्य कः कुतो वा न वा कुत:
bhīṣma uvāca | tasyāpy evaṃprabhāvasya sadaś ca vaśyeva dhāvataḥ | ajasaṃ sarvalokasya kaḥ kuto vā na vā kutaḥ ||
よく調教された良馬が、あまりの速さで一処を離れて他処へ到り、言葉も及ばぬほどであるように、この力ある世もまた、絶えず勢いに駆られて、一つの状態から次の状態へと移りゆく。ゆえに「誰がどこから来るのか、誰が来ないのか。これは誰のものか、誰のものではないのか。何から生じ、何から生じないのか」といった問いは、意味をもって立てがたい。
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Because the world is in constant, forceful motion—shifting from state to state—questions of fixed origin, ownership, and enduring relation (“who is from where,” “whose is this”) lose their ultimate footing; the teaching points toward non-attachment and insight into impermanence.
In Shanti Parva’s instruction, Bhishma continues a philosophical explanation to Yudhishthira, using the simile of a swift, well-controlled horse to describe the world’s relentless movement and to undermine ordinary assumptions about stable identity and possession.