Shloka 6
Doṣa-Parīkṣā and Guṇa-Viveka
Examination of Faults and Discernment of the Guṇas
सुखाद् बहुतरं दुःखं जीविते नास्ति संशय: । स्निग्धस्य चेन्द्रियार्थेषु मोहान्मरणमप्रियम्,इसमें संदेह नहीं कि जीवनमें सुखकी अपेक्षा दुःख ही अधिक है। जो पुरुष विषयोंमें अधिक आसक्त होता है, वह मोहवश मरणरूप अप्रिय कष्ट भोगता है
sukhād bahutaraṃ duḥkhaṃ jīvite nāsti saṃśayaḥ | snigdhasyendriyārtheṣu mohān maraṇam apriyam ||
सुखाद् बहुतरं दुःखं जीविते नास्ति संशयः । स्निग्धस्य चेन्द्रियार्थेषु मोहान्मरणमप्रियम् ॥
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma teaches that worldly life contains more suffering than pleasure, and that strong attachment to sense-objects creates delusion, making death especially painful and unwelcome. The ethical thrust is toward vairāgya (detachment) and mastery over the senses to meet life’s end with clarity rather than fear.
In the Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and the disciplines that lead to peace. Here he emphasizes a reflective, renunciatory insight: recognizing the predominance of duḥkha in saṃsāric life and warning that indulgent attachment to sense pleasures intensifies distress at the time of death.