Shloka 8

Adhyāya 287 — Janaka’s Inquiry on Śreyas, Abhayadāna, and Asaṅga

Non-attachment

Devanagari script

भगवन्नाश्रमा: सर्वे पृथगाचारदर्शिन: । इदं श्रेय इदं श्रेय इति सर्वे प्रबोधिता:

Transliteration

bhagavann āśramāḥ sarve pṛthag-ācāra-darśinaḥ | idaṃ śreya idaṃ śreya iti sarve prabodhitāḥ ||

Translation

ଭଗବନ୍! ସମସ୍ତ ଆଶ୍ରମ ନିଜ-ନିଜ ପୃଥକ୍ ଆଚାର ଦେଖାନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ‘ଏହିଁ ଶ୍ରେୟ, ଏହିଁ ଶ୍ରେୟ’ ବୋଲି ଉପଦେଶ ଦିଅନ୍ତି—ନିଜ ନିୟମ-ଶାସନର ଶ୍ରେଷ୍ଠତା ପ୍ରତିପାଦନ କରି ମନୁଷ୍ୟମାନଙ୍କ ବୁଦ୍ଧିରେ ସେହି କଥାକୁ ଦୃଢ଼ କରିଦିଅନ୍ତି।

Word by Word

• {'bhagavan': 'venerable one

• revered lord (a respectful address)', 'āśramāḥ': 'the life-stages/ordered modes of life (student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant)', 'sarve': 'all', 'pṛthak': 'separately

• distinctly', 'ācāra': 'conduct

• discipline', 'darśinaḥ': 'showing

• pointing out (lit. ‘seeing/causing to be seen’)', 'idaṃ': 'this', 'śreyaḥ': 'the good

• the highest welfare', 'iti': 'thus

• ‘so’ (quotative particle)', 'prabodhitāḥ': 'instructed

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• āśramas (four life-stages)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhishma highlights that different āśramas advocate different disciplines as ‘the highest good,’ shaping people’s convictions; this sets up the need to discern a unifying or higher criterion of dharma beyond sectarian self-assertion.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma addresses a revered interlocutor and observes that each life-stage promotes its own code as supreme, prompting further inquiry into which path truly leads to the highest welfare.