Shloka 53
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
अतपास्तप आत्मानमगतिग्गतिमात्मन: । अभवो भवमात्मानमभयो भयमात्मन:
atapās tapa ātmānam agatiṁ gatim ātmanaḥ | abhavo bhavam ātmānam abhayo bhayam ātmanaḥ ||
বসিষ্ঠ বললেন—তপ না করেও সে নিজেকে তপস্বী মনে করে; কোথাও না গিয়েও নিজেকে গমনশীল ভাবে। ভব (সংসার) থেকে মুক্ত হয়েও নিজেকে সংসারী মনে করে; এবং নির্ভয় হয়েও নিজেকে ভীত বলে ধরে।
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that bondage often arises from misidentification: the mind attributes to the Self qualities it does not possess (austerity/non-austerity, motion/non-motion, worldly becoming/non-becoming, fearlessness/fear). Ethical clarity and liberation begin by seeing through these false self-notions.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing his listener in a reflective, renunciatory discourse typical of the Śānti Parva: he diagnoses the inner error by which a person superimposes contradictory states upon the Self, thereby sustaining confusion and suffering.