Shloka 12

Brahmopadeśa on Saṃnyāsa, Tapas, and Jñāna (ब्रह्मोपदेशः—संन्यासतपोज्ञानविमर्शः)

Devanagari script

अव्यक्तयोनिप्रभवो बुद्धिस्कन्धमयो महान्‌ | महाहंकारविटप इन्द्रियाडुकुरकोटर:

Transliteration

avyaktayoniprabhavo buddhiskandhamayo mahān | mahāhaṃkāraviṭapa indriyāḍukurakoṭaraḥ

Translation

قال إله الريح فايُو: «إن هذه الشجرة العظمى (الكونية) تنشأ من أصلٍ غير متجلٍّ؛ وجذعها مُكوَّن من العقل المميِّز (buddhi). وغصنها العظيم هو الأنا (ahaṃkāra)؛ إحساسُ “أنا”. وأما تجاويفها وخلجانها في داخلها فهي الحواسّ.»

Word by Word

• अव्यक्त-योनि-प्रभवः: arising from the unmanifest as womb/source
• अव्यक्त-योनि-प्रभवः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: प्रभव (प्र + भू) (प्रातिपदिक: प्रभव)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• बुद्धि-स्कन्ध-मयः: consisting of the trunk of intellect
• बुद्धि-स्कन्ध-मयः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: मय (प्रातिपदिक: मय)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• महान्: great
• महान्: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: महत् (प्रातिपदिक: महत्)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• महā-हंकार-विटपः: having the great ego as branches
• महā-हंकार-विटपः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: विटप (प्रातिपदिक: विटप)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• इन्द्रिय-आडुकुर-कोटरः: with sense-organs as hollows/cavities (in the branches)
• इन्द्रिय-आडुकुर-कोटरः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: कोटर (प्रातिपदिक: कोटर)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vāyu (Wind-god)
• avyakta (the Unmanifest principle)
• buddhi (intellect)
• ahaṃkāra (ego-sense)
• indriyāṇi (sense-organs)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse maps inner psychology and cosmology onto a ‘tree’ structure: the unmanifest is the root-source, intellect is the stabilizing trunk, ego-sense is a major branching principle, and the sense-faculties are the hollows through which experience flows. Ethically, it points toward discerning these components, loosening identification with ego and senses, and cultivating discriminative wisdom (buddhi) as a basis for restraint and liberation-oriented conduct.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyu-deva is explaining a doctrinal model of embodied existence using a metaphorical tree. He identifies successive principles—unmanifest source, intellect, ego-sense, and the sense-organs—so the listener can understand how experience and bondage arise through the mind-sense complex.