Shloka 23

अध्याय १७८ — प्राणवायुगतिः तथा शारीराग्निव्यवस्था

Adhyāya 178 — The courses of prāṇa-vāyu and the regulation of the bodily fire

Devanagari script

नूनं ते हृदयं काम वज़सारमयं दृढम्‌ | यदनर्थशताविष्टं शतधा न विदीर्यते

Transliteration

nūnaṁ te hṛdayaṁ kāma vajrasāramayaṁ dṛḍham | yad anarthaśatāviṣṭaṁ śatadhā na vidīryate ||

Translation

ဘီရှ္မက မိန့်တော်မူသည်– «အို ကာမ (အလိုဆန္ဒ) ရေ၊ သင်၏ နှလုံးသားသည် အဒမန်တင်းကဲ့သို့ ခဲယဉ်း၍ အလွန်တင်းမာသည်ဟု ထင်ရှားလှသည်။ အကြောင်းမူကား အန္တရာယ်နှင့် ဒုက္ခဆိုးများ ရာချီကပ်လျက်ရှိသော်လည်း ၎င်းသည် ရာပိုင်းကွဲမသွားသေး»။

Word by Word

• नूनम्: surely, indeed
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: नूनम्

• ते: of you/your
• ते: Adhikarana
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: त्वद्
• Form: any, Genitive, Singular

• हृदयम्: heart
• हृदयम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: हृदय
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• काम: O Desire (Kāma)
• Type: Noun
• Root: काम
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• वज्रसारमयम्: made of adamant/steel-like essence
• Type: Adjective
• Root: वज्रसारमय
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• दृढम्: firm, hard
• Type: Adjective
• Root: दृढ
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• यत्: which (heart)
• यत्: Karta
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: यद्
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• अनर्थशताविष्टम्: possessed/overwhelmed by hundreds of misfortunes
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अनर्थशत-आविष्ट
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• शतधा: into a hundred parts
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: शतधा

• न: not
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: न

• विदीर्यते: is split, is torn apart
• Type: Verb
• Root: विदॄ
• Form: Present, Indicative, Passive, Third, Singular

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Kāma (Desire)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Desire is portrayed as extraordinarily hard and persistent: even when it brings repeated harm, it does not break or diminish easily. The ethical implication is the need for vigilance and self-mastery, since unchecked desire endures despite suffering and continues to drive unwholesome actions.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma, instructing on dharma in the Śānti Parva, addresses Kāma as a personified force. He marvels (with reproach) at desire’s stubborn resilience: though surrounded by countless harmful consequences, it remains unshattered—highlighting why desire is such a formidable obstacle to peace and right conduct.