Itihāsa / Mahābhārata / Mokṣadharma

Mokṣadharma (मोक्षधर्म)

The third great stretch of the Śānti-parva (शान्तिपर्व). Yudhiṣṭhira has won a kingdom he does not want. Bhīṣma is lying on the bed of arrows, waiting for the sun to turn north, and he teaches. The parva's own order is three: first the dharma of a king, rājadharma (राजधर्म); then the dharma of distress, āpaddharma (आपद्धर्म), what is done when the rule cannot be kept; then mokṣadharma (मोक्षधर्म), the discourses on release. Statecraft is the first two. Liberation is the third. This page is the third.

The form is a dialogue with stories set inside the answers. Yudhiṣṭhira asks. Bhīṣma answers, and the answer often becomes another dialogue: a sage, a king, a god, reported from some earlier time. The topics a reader meets are the self and the body, the guṇas, renunciation and the householder, gifts, austerity, and what remains when action is exhausted. It is a library inside a chapter. The vulgate and the critical edition do not cut it into the same chapter numbers. This page does not freeze a number it cannot defend. It does not sit the discourses line by line. The Yakṣa's questions are sometimes named in the same breath, because both are the epic thinking aloud about dharma. They are not the same hour. The Yakṣa is in the forest, years before this bed of arrows.

नेपालीमा

मोक्षधर्म शान्तिपर्वको तेस्रो ठूलो अंश हो। युधिष्ठिरले जितेको राज्य उनले चाहँदैनन्। भीष्म बाणको शय्यामा सुतेका छन्, सूर्य उत्तरतिर फर्कने पर्खाइमा छन्, र उपदेश दिन्छन्। पर्वको आफ्नै क्रम तीन हो। पहिले राजधर्म। त्यसपछि आपद्धर्म, नियम पालन गर्न नसकिँदा के गर्ने भन्ने। अनि मोक्षधर्म, मुक्तिबारे प्रवचन। पहिला दुई राज्यकाजका कुरा हुन्। तेस्रो मुक्तिको हो, र यो पृष्ठ त्यही तेस्रोबारे हो। यसको रूप संवाद हो, जसका उत्तरभित्र कथाहरू बसेका छन्। युधिष्ठिर सोध्छन्। भीष्म जवाफ दिन्छन्, र जवाफ प्रायः अर्को संवाद बन्छ: कुनै ऋषि, राजा वा देवताको, कुनै पुरानो समयबाट सुनाइएको। पाठकले भेट्ने विषय आत्मा र शरीर, गुण, संन्यास र गृहस्थ, दान, तप, र कर्म सिद्धिएपछि के रहन्छ भन्ने हुन्। यो एउटा अध्यायभित्रको पुस्तकालय हो। प्रचलित पाठ र आलोचनात्मक संस्करणले यसलाई एउटै अध्याय-अङ्कमा काट्दैनन्। यो पृष्ठले आफूले पुष्टि गर्न नसक्ने अङ्क टाँस्दैन। प्रवचन एक एक श्लोक गरी राखिएका छैनन्। यक्षप्रश्न कहिलेकाहीँ यही सन्दर्भमा लिइन्छ, किनकि दुवै धर्मबारे महाकाव्यको सोचाइ हुन्। तर ती उही घडी होइनन्। यक्ष वनमा छन्, यो बाणको शय्याभन्दा वर्षौँअघि।

Where it sits

The Sāṅkhya Kārikā and the Yoga Sūtra are the short systematic books of the same region of thought. The Mokṣadharma is the epic's long way of saying them, with stories. The thousand names in the next parva, the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma, are what Bhīṣma gives when the discourses turn toward praise. The Gītā has already said, on the field, a great deal of what this bed of arrows will unfold.