Shloka 34

Adhyāya 180: Jīva, Śarīra, and the Fire Analogy (भृगु–भरद्वाज संवादः)

Devanagari script

न हृदयमनुरुध्य वाड्मनो वा प्रियसुखदुर्लभतामनित्यतां च । तदुभयमुपलक्षयत्रिवाहं व्रतमिदमाजगरं शुचिश्नचरामि

Transliteration

na hṛdayam anurudhya vāḍ-mano vā priyasukha-durlabhatām anityatāṁ ca | tad-ubhayam upalakṣaya tri-vāhaṁ vratam idam ājagaraṁ śuciśn carāmi ||

Translation

Bhīṣma nói: Không chiều theo những xung động của trái tim, cũng không thuận theo sự thúc giục của lời nói và tâm trí, ta sống như người thấy rõ cả hai điều: những lạc thú tưởng như đáng yêu thì hiếm có và lại vô thường. Nhìn thấy hai chân lý ấy cùng một lúc, ta thanh tịnh thực hành “ājagara-vrata” — lời nguyện theo nếp sống của con trăn — đi qua đời bằng sức chịu đựng tiết chế, không nắm giữ, không vơ lấy.

Word by Word

• {'hṛdaya': 'heart

• inner impulse or emotional drive', 'anurudhya': 'having complied with

• having followed or yielded to', 'vāḍ-manas': 'speech and mind (the faculties of expression and thought)', 'priya': 'dear

• attractive', 'sukha': 'pleasure

• enjoyment', 'durlabhatā': 'rarity

• difficulty of attainment', 'anityatā': 'impermanence

• transience', 'tad-ubhayam': 'both of those (two truths: rarity and impermanence)', 'upalakṣaya': 'having observed/recognized

• discerning', 'tri-vāha': 'threefold current/stream (commonly understood as the three impulses/faculties such as mind, speech, and inner drive)', 'vrata': 'vow

• disciplined observance', 'ājagara': 'python

• metaphor for patient, non-striving endurance', 'śuci': 'pure

• purified in conduct and intention', 'carāmi': 'I practice

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• ājagara-vrata (python vow)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Pleasures that appear dear are both hard to obtain and impermanent; therefore one should not let heart-impulse, speech, or mind dictate one’s conduct. The verse commends purified restraint and patient non-striving (ājagara-vrata) grounded in clear discernment of transience.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on dharma and inner discipline. Here he describes his own stance: he practices the ‘python vow,’ a metaphor for enduring, minimizing craving, and not chasing sense-pleasures, while maintaining purity and self-mastery.