Shloka 47
Saṃhāra-krama (The Sequence of Cosmic Dissolution) — Yājñavalkya’s Discourse
काम जित्वा तथा क्रोधं शीतोष्णे वर्षमेव च । भयं शोकं तथा श्वासं पौरुषान् विषयांस्तथा
kāmaṃ jitvā tathā krodhaṃ śītoṣṇe varṣam eva ca | bhayaṃ śokaṃ tathā śvāsaṃ pauruṣān viṣayāṃs tathā
Bhīṣma disse: “Tendo vencido o desejo e a ira, e suportado o frio e o calor e até as chuvas, deve-se igualmente dominar o medo e o pesar, e regular a respiração; e também refrear os impulsos da virilidade e o apelo dos objetos dos sentidos.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches inner conquest: overcoming desire and anger, remaining steady amid bodily hardships (cold, heat, rain), mastering fear and grief, and regulating breath and sensory attraction. Such restraint is presented as a foundation for dharma and ethical clarity.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma after the war. Here he lists disciplines of self-mastery—control of passions, endurance of opposites, and regulation of breath and senses—as part of the broader teaching on righteous living and inner governance.