Shloka 17
Adhyāya 241: Guṇa-sṛṣṭi, Kṣetrajña-sākṣitva, and Śama through Ātma-jñāna (गुणसृष्टिः, क्षेत्रज्ञसाक्षित्वं, शमः)
एकादशविकारात्मा कलासम्भारसम्भृत: । मूर्तिमानिति तं विद्धि तात कर्मगुणात्मकम्
ekādaśa-vikārātmā kalā-sambhāra-sambhṛtaḥ | mūrtimān iti taṁ viddhi tāta karma-guṇātmakaṁ ||
Bhishma sprach: „Wisse, mein Kind, dass der Verkörperte ‘Formtragender’ (mūrtimān) ist: Er besteht aus den elf Modifikationen—Geist und Sinne—und trägt die angesammelte Last der durch Handeln hervorgebrachten ‘Teile’ (kalā). So nimmt das Lebewesen als Handelnder Geburt an, von Karma und den guṇa geformt, und ist—wie der Mond—im Leib dem Zunehmen und Abnehmen unterworfen.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Embodiment is explained as karma-driven: the individual becomes ‘form-bearing’ by being constituted through the mind-and-senses complex (the ‘eleven modifications’) and by carrying the accumulated effects/constituents generated by past actions, all under the influence of the three guṇas.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on the nature of the embodied self and the mechanics of saṁsāra, describing how action and guṇas condition the rise of a body and its experiences of growth and decline.