Shloka 22
Aśmagīta: Janaka’s Inquiry on Loss, Kāla, and the Limits of Control (अश्मगीता)
वैद्याश्नाप्पातुरा: सन्ति बलवन्तश्न दुर्बला: | श्रीमन्तक्षापरे षण्ढा विचित्र: कालपर्यय:,कभी-कभी वैद्य भी रोगी, बलवान् भी दुर्बल और श्रीमान् भी असमर्थ हो जाते हैं, यह समयका उलट-फेर बड़ा अदभुत है
vaidyaś cāpi āturāḥ santi, balavantaś ca durbalāḥ | śrīmantaś cāpy aśaktāḥ, vicitraḥ kāla-paryayaḥ ||
Janaka disse: “Às vezes até os médicos adoecem; até os fortes se enfraquecem; e até os prósperos se tornam impotentes. Tal é a espantosa reversão operada pelo Tempo.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the inevitability of change: Time can overturn health, strength, and wealth. Recognizing this supports humility, non-attachment, and steadiness in dharma despite shifting external conditions.
Janaka is speaking reflectively, pointing to everyday examples—doctors becoming patients, the strong becoming weak, the rich becoming helpless—to illustrate the unpredictable reversals caused by Time and to ground an ethical stance of detachment and equanimity.