Shloka 25
Prahlāda–Indra Saṃvāda: Kartṛtva (Agency) and Svabhāva (Nature) in the Causation of Karma
साधन आरम्भ कर देनेपर उसे बीचमें न रोके। जैसे आग धीरे-धीरे तेज की जाती है, उसी प्रकार ज्ञानके साधनको शनैः-शनै: उद्दीपित करे। ऐसा करनेसे ज्ञान सूर्यके समान प्रकाशित होने लगता है ।।
sādhanaṃ ārambhaṃ kṛtvā madhye na nivārayet | yathā agniḥ śanaiḥ-śanaiḥ tīvraḥ kriyate tathā jñānasya sādhanam api śanaiḥ-śanaiḥ uddīpayet | evaṃ kṛte jñānaṃ sūryavat prakāśate || jñānādhiṣṭhānam ajñānaṃ trīṃl lokān adhitiṣṭhati | vijñānānugataṃ jñānam ajñānena apākṛṣyate ||
毗湿摩说：既已立起修持之业，便不应半途而废。正如火势须徐徐加旺，求知之资粮亦当渐次点燃；如此，知识便如日轮般开始照耀。即使无明亦依于知识而立——此知识遍满并支撑三界；然而由于无明，随正智而行的知识却会被削弱、被牵引而退。
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Do not abandon a discipline once begun; cultivate the means to knowledge gradually and steadily. True knowledge becomes luminous through sustained practice, while ignorance can obscure even discernment-guided understanding.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīṣma continues ethical-spiritual counsel, using the metaphor of slowly intensifying fire to recommend patient, uninterrupted cultivation of knowledge and warning how ignorance diminishes insight.