Shloka 7
Adhyāya 6: Vidura’s Saṃsāra-Upamā
The Allegory of the Well, Time, and Desire
यस्तत्र कूपो नृपते स तु देह: शरीरिणाम्,नरेश्वर! उस वनमें जो कुआँ कहा गया है, वह देहधारियोंका शरीर है। उसमें नीचे जो विशाल नाग रहता है, वह काल ही है। वही सम्पूर्ण प्राणियोंका अन्त करनेवाला और देहधारियोंका सर्वस्व हर लेनेवाला है
yas tatra kūpo nṛpate sa tu dehaḥ śarīriṇām | nareśvara! tasmin vane yo kūpaḥ kathyate sa dehadhāriṇāṃ śarīram | tatra adho yo mahānāgaḥ tiṣṭhati sa kāla eva | sa eva samasta-prāṇinām anta-kartā dehadhāriṇāṃ sarvasva-hartā ca |
यस्तत्र कूपो नृपते स तु देहः शरीरिणाम् ।
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the body is an allegorical “well,” and the serpent at its bottom is Time/Death. Since Time inevitably ends life and takes away all possessions and attachments, one should cultivate discernment, humility, and detachment, living dharmically without clinging to what cannot be kept.
Vidura is interpreting an allegorical description for the king. He identifies the symbolic elements—well, forest, serpent—as realities of embodied existence: the body and the inescapable power of Time that brings all beings to their end.