Shloka 7
कर्मविद्या-भेदः
Karma–Vidyā Distinction: Paths of Bondage and Release
अपामपि गुणं॑ तात ज्योतिराददते यदा | आपस्तदा त्वात्तगुणा ज्योति:षूपरमन्ति वै,वत्स! तदनन्तर तेज जलके गुण रसको ग्रहण कर लेता है और रसहीन जल तेजमें लीन हो जाता है
apām api guṇaṃ tāta jyotir ādadate yadā | āpas tadā tvāttaguṇā jyotiḥṣu uparamanti vai, vatsa |
Vyāsa sprach: „Mein Kind, wenn das Feuer sogar die Qualität des Wassers an sich nimmt, dann kommen die Wasser—ihrer Qualität beraubt—wahrlich zur Ruhe (werden aufgenommen) in den Feuern, o Sohn.“ Im ethisch-philosophischen Zusammenhang veranschaulicht der Vers, wie ein subtileres oder mächtigeres Prinzip die bestimmende Eigenschaft eines anderen Elements an sich ziehen kann; wird diese Eigenschaft entzogen, verliert jenes seine eigenständige Grundlage und heißt, es gehe in das andere ein—ein Bild für Auflösung, Abhängigkeit und die Rangordnung der Weltbestandteile.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a model of dissolution and dependence: when a dominant principle (here, fire/light) takes over the defining quality (guṇa) of another (water), the latter—deprived of its own defining attribute—loses separate status and is said to merge into the former. It supports a broader ethical-philosophical point in Śānti Parva about understanding constituents of reality and cultivating detachment from what is transient and derivative.
Vyāsa addresses a disciple/son affectionately (“tāta”, “vatsa”) and explains, through elemental imagery, how one element can absorb another during processes of transformation or dissolution: fire takes the ‘quality’ of water, and water, having lost that quality, subsides into fire.