Shloka 12
Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara
Fever
चक्षुषी नासिकाकर्णो त्वक् जिद्वेति च पठचमी । इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थानां ज्ञानानि कवयो विदु:
cakṣuṣī nāsikākarṇau tvak jihveti ca pañcamī | indriyāṇīndriyārthānāṃ jñānāni kavayo viduḥ ||
Asita sprach: „Die Gelehrten erklären, dass die fünf Erkenntnisorgane—die beiden Augen, die Nase, die beiden Ohren, die Haut und als fünftes die Zunge—die Mittel sind, durch die der Mensch ihre jeweiligen Gegenstände erfasst. So versteht der Weise die Sinneswahrnehmung als das Tor, durch das die Welt erkannt wird, und daher als etwas, das recht zu verstehen und zu beherrschen ist.“
असित उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse identifies the five organs of knowledge (eyes, nose, ears, skin, tongue) as the instruments by which sense-objects are apprehended, implying that ethical life requires understanding and regulating sense-perception rather than being driven by it.
In Asita’s discourse in the Śānti Parva, he is explaining a classificatory teaching about the human faculties—specifically how knowledge of the external world arises through the senses—within a broader instruction on right understanding and self-mastery.