Shloka 47

गोमूल्यनिर्णयः — The Determination of Value through the Cow

Nahuṣa–Cyavana Episode

Devanagari script

शरीरमिह सत्त्वेन न तस्य परिकृष्यते । ज्येष्ठमध्यावरं सत्त्वं तुल्यसत्त्वं प्रमोदते

Transliteration

śarīram iha sattvena na tasya parikṛṣyate | jyeṣṭha-madhyāvaraṁ sattvaṁ tulya-sattvaṁ pramodate ||

Translation

毗湿摩说：在此世间，人的身体并不会仅因采纳精致或“学理”的见解，便被从其与生俱来的性情中牵离、改铸。无论其本性为上、中、下——何种气质塑成其形与心——人往往以此为乐，喜爱与自身相类之性。

Word by Word

• {'śarīram': 'body

• embodied constitution', 'iha': 'here

• in this world', 'sattvena': 'by sattva

• by one’s disposition/temperament (also ‘purity’ in guṇa-theory, context-dependent)', 'na': 'not', 'tasya': 'of him/of that person', 'parikṛṣyate': 'is dragged away

• is forcibly altered/removed from its natural course', 'jyeṣṭha': 'superior

• excellent', 'madhya': 'middling

• moderate', 'avara': 'inferior

• lower', 'sattvam': 'nature

• disposition', 'tulya-sattvam': 'one of similar nature

• what matches one’s disposition', 'pramodate': 'rejoices

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Innate disposition (sattva/temperament) strongly conditions embodied life; mere acquisition of ‘learned’ or doctrinal understanding does not automatically uproot one’s natural tendencies. Ethical cultivation must therefore be gradual and practice-based, not only intellectual.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhīṣma’s instruction discourse (Anuśāsana Parva), he explains to his listener that people naturally gravitate toward what matches their own temperament, and that the body-personality complex does not readily shift away from its inborn constitution simply through abstract knowledge.