Shloka 43
Mokṣa-dharma Yoga-Upadeśa: Equanimity, Sense-Restraint, and Vision of the Ātman (आत्मदर्शन-योगोपदेशः)
जीव: कथं वहति च चेष्टमान: कलेवरम् । कि वर्ण कीदृशं चैव निवेशयति वै पुन:
jīvaḥ kathaṁ vahati ca ceṣṭamānaḥ kalevaram | ki varṇa kīdṛśaṁ caiva niveśayati vai punaḥ ||
وسأل البراهمن: «كيف يحمل الكائن الحيّ، وهو يجاهد ويتحرك، هذا الهيكل الجسدي؟ وإلى أي صورة وأي حال يدخل من جديد؟»
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a classic dharmic inquiry: the jīva animates and sustains the body during action, and after death it ‘enters again’ into a new embodiment shaped by karma. It points to moral causality—conduct and intention influence the kind of future birth and condition one attains.
A brāhmaṇa, in a dialogic setting, questions the mechanics of embodied existence: how the living self bears the body while acting, and what sort of form or varṇa it assumes upon re-embodiment. The verse functions as a prompt for a subsequent doctrinal explanation.