Shloka 109

Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)

Devanagari script

सुखासुखे जरामृत्यू लाभालाभौ प्रियाप्रिये । इति चैकोनविंशो<यं द्वन्द्रयोग इति स्मृत:,सुख और दुःख, जरा और मृत्यु, लाभ और हानि तथा प्रिय और अप्रिय इत्यादि द्न्द्दोंका जो योग है, यह उन्नीसवाँ गुण माना गया है

Transliteration

sukhāsukhe jarāmṛtyū lābhālābhau priyāpriye | iti caikonaviṁśo ’yaṁ dvandrayoga iti smṛtaḥ ||

Translation

سکھ اور دکھ، بڑھاپا اور موت، نفع اور نقصان، اور محبوب و نامحبوب—ان جوڑوں کے مقابلے میں جو برابریِ نظر (سمبھاو) کا یوگ ہے، وہی انیسواں گُن یاد کیا گیا ہے۔

Word by Word

सुखासुखेpleasure and pain

जराold age

मृत्यूdeath (as one of the pair: old age and death)

लाभालाभौgain and loss

प्रियाप्रियेthe dear and the not-dear (pleasant and unpleasant)

इतिthus

चand

एकोनविंशःnineteenth

अयम्this

द्वन्द्रयोगःthe conjunction/combination of pairs of opposites

इतिthus

स्मृतःis considered/remembered (as)

Speaker

भीष्य उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhīṣma

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

To cultivate steadiness toward life’s opposites—pleasure/pain, gain/loss, dear/undesired, and even aging/death—so that one’s conduct remains aligned with dharma rather than driven by fluctuating circumstances.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma is advising Yudhiṣṭhira on virtues and disciplines. Here he enumerates a specific quality—‘dvandva-yoga,’ the practice of equanimity toward dualities—and identifies it as the nineteenth in the list being taught.