Shloka 8
Adhyāya 241: Guṇa-sṛṣṭi, Kṣetrajña-sākṣitva, and Śama through Ātma-jñāna (गुणसृष्टिः, क्षेत्रज्ञसाक्षित्वं, शमः)
कर्मणा जायते प्रेत्य मूर्तिमान्ू षोडशात्मक: । विद्यया जायते नित्यमव्यक्त हाव्ययात्मकम्
bhīṣma uvāca | karmaṇā jāyate pretya mūrtimān ṣoḍaśātmakaḥ | vidyayā jāyate nityam avyaktam avyayātmakam ||
Bhishma sprach: Durch Handeln (Karma) wird ein Wesen nach dem Tod erneut geboren und nimmt einen greifbaren, verkörperten Leib an, der aus den sechzehn Prinzipien besteht; durch wahre Erkenntnis (Vidyā) jedoch wird es immerdar in—das heißt: es erlangt—Jenes, das unmanifest und unvergänglich seinem Wesen nach ist.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions (karma) bind the self to post-mortem rebirth in an embodied form made of the ‘sixteen principles,’ whereas liberating knowledge (vidyā/jñāna) leads to realization/attainment of the unmanifest, imperishable reality—i.e., freedom from embodied becoming.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation, Bhishma continues his discourse to Yudhishthira by contrasting two paths and outcomes: karmic continuity producing another embodied existence versus knowledge culminating in the unmanifest, undecaying principle (paramātman/brahman).