Shloka 9
Aśoka-śāstra: Nārada’s Instruction on the Cessation of Śoka
Grief
यो5रुन्धतीं न पश्येत दृष्टपूर्वां कदाचन । तथैव ध्रुवमित्याहु: पूर्णेन्दुं दीपमेव च
yo 'rundhatīṁ na paśyet dṛṣṭapūrvāṁ kadācana | tathaiva dhruvam ity āhuḥ pūrṇenduṁ dīpam eva ca ||
Yājñavalkya nói: “Kẻ nào chưa từng thấy Arundhatī trước đây thì cũng chẳng nhận ra nàng; cũng vậy, người đời gọi một điều là ‘cố định’ hay ‘chắc chắn’ bằng cách chỉ vào những mẫu mực quen thuộc—như sao Dhruva (sao Bắc Cực), vầng trăng tròn, hay ngọn đèn.”
याज्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Certainty and recognition depend on prior acquaintance and reliable exemplars: what is unfamiliar cannot be readily identified, so instruction often uses well-known standards (like Dhruva, the full moon, or a lamp) to convey ‘fixedness’ or clarity.
In a didactic passage of Śānti Parva, Yājñavalkya explains a point about knowledge and assurance by analogy: just as Arundhatī cannot be recognized by someone who has never seen her, so people establish conviction by referring to commonly recognized, stable or luminous examples.