Shloka 12
शोक-शमन उपदेशः
Instruction on the Pacification of Grief
यथा च मृण्मयं भाण्डं चक्रारूढं विपद्यते | किंचित् प्रक्रियमाणं वा कृतमात्रमथापि वा
yathā ca mṛṇmayaṃ bhāṇḍaṃ cakrārūḍhaṃ vipadyate | kiṃcit prakriyamāṇaṃ vā kṛtamātram athāpi vā ||
ಕುಂಭಾರನ ಚಕ್ರದ ಮೇಲೆ ಇಟ್ಟ ಮಣ್ಣಿನ ಪಾತ್ರೆ—ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಮಾತ್ರ ರೂಪುಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೂ, ಇನ್ನೂ ರೂಪುಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಇದ್ದರೂ, ಅಥವಾ ಈಗಷ್ಟೇ ಮುಗಿದಿದ್ದರೂ—ಹೇಗೆ ನಾಶವಾಗಬಹುದೋ, ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ನಾಜೂಕಾದ ಹೊಸದಾದುದು ಬೇಗನೆ ನಾಶವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches the principle of impermanence: like a clay pot on the wheel, life and human undertakings—whether just begun, still forming, or newly completed—can be destroyed suddenly. The ethical implication is to cultivate steadiness, humility, and dharmic restraint amid success and disaster.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vidura speaks in a consolatory and admonitory mode. He uses a vivid everyday metaphor (a pot on the potter’s wheel) to frame the devastation and grief as part of the fragile condition of worldly existence.