Shloka 18

Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)

Devanagari script

अजितेन्द्रिय जीव अज्ञानवश सत्त्व, रज और तमसे मोहित हो निरन्तर चक्रकी तरह घूमते रहते हैं ।।

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | ajitendriyo jīvo 'jñānavaśāt sattva-rajas-tamobhir mohito nityaṃ cakrakīva parivartate || tasmāt samyak parīkṣeta doṣān ajñāna-sambhavān | ajñāna-prabhavaṃ duḥkham ahaṃkāraṃ parityajet ||

Translation

قال بهيشما: إنّ الكائن الحيّ الذي لم يقهر حواسّه، وقد ساقته الجهالة وأضلّته الغونات الثلاث: ساتفا وراجاس وتاماس، يظلّ يدور بلا انقطاع كالعجلة. لذلك ينبغي أن يُمحِّص المرء بعناية العيوب الناشئة عن الجهالة، وأن يتخلّى عن الألم وعن شعور الأنا (أهمكارا) المولودين من تلك الجهالة.

Word by Word

• {'ajitendriyaḥ': 'one whose senses are unconquered

• lacking self-mastery', 'jīvaḥ': 'the individual living being

• embodied self', 'ajñānavaśāt': 'under the sway of ignorance', 'sattva': 'the guṇa of clarity, balance, illumination', 'rajas': 'the guṇa of passion, activity, restlessness', 'tamas': 'the guṇa of darkness, inertia, delusion', 'mohitaḥ': 'deluded, bewildered', 'nityam': 'constantly, perpetually', 'cakrakīva': 'like a wheel', 'parivartate': 'turns about, revolves

• continues in cyclic movement', 'tasmāt': 'therefore', 'samyak': 'properly, thoroughly, rightly', 'parīkṣeta': 'one should examine/investigate', 'doṣān': 'faults, defects, moral/spiritual blemishes', 'ajñāna-sambhavān': 'arising from ignorance', 'ajñāna-prabhavam': 'originating from ignorance', 'duḥkham': 'suffering, pain, distress', 'ahaṃkāram': 'egoism

• the ‘I’-notion, self-conceit', 'parityajet': 'one should abandon, renounce'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma (speaker)
• jīva (the living being)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Lack of sense-control keeps the jīva trapped in cyclic wandering under the delusion of the three guṇas. The remedy is discriminative inquiry: identify the faults born of ignorance and abandon the ego-sense and suffering that arise from it.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on inner discipline and liberation-oriented ethics, explaining why beings remain bound and what practical mental renunciation is required.