Shloka 163

अज्ञान–लोभयोः परस्परहेतुत्वम्

Mutual Causality of Ignorance and Greed

Devanagari script

त्यजतां जीवितं श्रेयो निवृत्ते पुण्यपापके । इस संसारके सम्पूर्ण प्राणियोंमें जब दुःख ही नहीं है

Transliteration

śaunaka uvāca | tyajatāṃ jīvitaṃ śreyo nivṛtte puṇya-pāpake |

Translation

商那迦说道：对于那等福与罪皆已止息之人，舍离——乃至舍身——被视为更高之善。在具身众生的世间，没有苦之阴影便无从得乐；乐与苦乃系于自然（prakṛti）之众生的常态，他们在接触与交往的过失中随缘而行。然而，若有人连同“我所”与我慢一并舍尽一切，其内善恶之动势皆已寂灭，则此人之生存本身亦成吉祥，能致安稳。

Word by Word

• त्यजताम्: let them abandon / may they give up
• Type: Verb
• Root: त्यज्
• Form: लोट् (imperative/benedictive sense), 3rd, plural, परस्मैपदम्

• जीवितम्: life
• जीवितम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: जीवित
• Form: neuter, accusative, singular

• श्रेयः: the better (good), welfare
• श्रेयः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: श्रेयस्
• Form: neuter, nominative, singular

• निवृत्ते: when (both) have ceased / upon cessation (of both)
• निवृत्ते: Adhikarana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: निवृत्त
• Form: neuter, locative, dual

• पुण्यपापके: in merit-and-sin (in the pair of virtue and vice)
• पुण्यपापके: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुण्यपापक
• Form: neuter, locative, dual

Speaker

शौनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śaunaka

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

True welfare (śreyas) lies in detachment: when ego and possessiveness are abandoned and the dualities of merit and sin no longer bind, one’s life becomes intrinsically auspicious; pleasure and pain are seen as natural to embodied existence under prakṛti.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, Śaunaka speaks a reflective teaching on the inevitability of pleasure and pain for embodied beings and praises the state of renunciation in which both puṇya and pāpa have ceased to operate.