Shloka 32

त्रिवर्गविचारः

Tri-varga Deliberation: Dharma, Artha, Kāma

Devanagari script

यच्च पैतामहं स्थान ब्रह्म॒राशिसमुद्धवम्‌ । गुहायां पिहित॑ नित्यं तद्‌ दमेनाभिगम्यते

Transliteration

yac ca paitāmahaṃ sthānaṃ brahma-rāśi-samudbhavam | guhāyāṃ pihitaṃ nityaṃ tad damenābhigamyate ||

Translation

ဘီရှ္မက ဆိုသည်– «ဗြဟ္မ၏ အရင်းအမြစ်မှ ပေါက်ဖွားလာသော အဘိုးအဘွားဆိုင်ရာ အမြင့်မြတ်ဆုံး နေရာတော်သည် နှလုံးသား၏ ဂူအတွင်း၌ အမြဲတမ်း ဖုံးကွယ်နေသည်။ ထိုနေရာသို့ ရောက်ခြင်းသည် “ဒမ” (dama) — အာရုံများကို ထိန်းချုပ်ခြင်းနှင့် စိတ်ကို တည်ငြိမ်စွာ အုပ်ချုပ်ခြင်း—ဖြင့်သာ ဖြစ်နိုင်သည်»။

Word by Word

• {'yat ca': 'and that which', 'paitāmaham': 'ancestral

• pertaining to the Pitāmaha (Brahmā), primeval', 'sthānam': 'abode

• state', 'brahma-rāśi': 'the Brahmic mass/aggregate

• the Brahmanic source (a concentrated ‘store’ of Brahman)', 'samudbhavam': 'arisen from

• originating in', 'guhāyām': 'in the cave (especially the heart-cave)', 'pihitam': 'hidden

• concealed', 'nityam': 'always

• eternally', 'tat': 'that (abode/state)', 'damena': 'by dama

• by self-restraint (sense-control and mental discipline)', 'abhigamyate': 'is attained

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Pitāmaha (Brahmā)
• hṛdaya-guhā (cave of the heart)
• dama (self-restraint)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The highest spiritual ‘abode’ is not sought externally; it is hidden within the heart. Its attainment depends on dama—ethical self-mastery through restraint of the senses and disciplined control of the mind.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira, emphasizing inner practice: the supreme state associated with Brahmā/Brahman is accessed through self-control rather than ritual or outward achievement.