Shloka 68
Adhyātma–Adhibhūta–Adhidaivata Correspondences and the Triguṇa Lakṣaṇas (Śānti-parva 301)
अस्थिसंघातसंघट्ट श्लेष्मफेनमरिंदम । दानमुक्ताकरं घोरं शोणितह्ददविद्रुमम्
asthisaṅghātasaṅghaṭṭa śleṣma-phenam ariṃdama | dāna-muktākaraṃ ghoraṃ śoṇita-hrada-vidrumam, śatrusūdana ||
भीष्म उवाच—मरिंदम, अस्थिसंघातसंघट्टोऽयं घोरः; श्लेष्मफेनः; दानमुक्ताकरः; शोणितह्रदविद्रुमः। ततः सिद्धा यतयः प्रज्ञारूपिण्या नौकया दुःखजलपूर्णं तं घोरं संसारसागरं तरन्ति, संगत्यागं कृत्वा निर्मलं व्योमवत् परं ब्रह्म प्रविशन्ति।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma teaches that saṃsāra is a perilous ‘ocean’ made dreadful by ignorance, attachment, fear, disease, and death; it is crossed not by worldly supports but by wisdom/knowledge, truth, vows, compassion, and especially renunciation of attachment, culminating in entry into the pure, sky-like Brahman (mokṣa).
In Śānti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and liberation. Here he delivers an extended allegory: the world is a vast ocean whose features are mapped to human conditions (bones, phlegm, blood, grief, craving, etc.), and he describes how perfected sages cross it by the ‘boat’ of wisdom to reach the farther shore of freedom.