Shloka 182
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
पृथक्त्वादाश्रमाणां च वर्णन्यत्वे तथैव च । परस्परपृथक्त्वाच्च कथं ते वर्णसंकर:
pṛthaktvād āśramāṇāṁ ca varṇānyatve tathaiva ca | paraspara-pṛthaktvāc ca kathaṁ te varṇa-saṅkaraḥ ||
毗湿摩说道：“既然诸住期（āśrama）彼此分明，四姓（varṇa）亦各有别，又相互隔离有序；那么，对你这明了其差别之人而言，‘姓分混杂’又怎会发生？若其界限得以守持，又凭何指称社会与伦理秩序会陷入紊乱？”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma argues that when āśramas and varṇas are clearly distinguished and their boundaries are understood, the claim of inevitable varṇa-saṅkara (social/ethical confusion through intermixture) lacks basis; the point is to ground social-ethical anxieties in careful reasoning rather than assumption.
In the Śānti Parva’s dharma-discourse, Bhīṣma addresses a concern about varṇa-saṅkara and challenges it by pointing to the conceptual and practical separations between āśramas and varṇas, pressing the interlocutor to justify how ‘mixing’ could occur if distinctions are maintained.