Shloka 14
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
गुणानां महदादीनामुत्पत्तिश्व॒ परस्परम् । अधिष्ठानात् क्षेत्रमाहुरेतत्तत् पजचविंशकम्
guṇānāṁ mahad-ādīnām utpattiś ca parasparam | adhiṣṭhānāt kṣetram āhur etat tat pañcaviṁśakam ||
Vasiṣṭha sprach: „Die manifesten Prinzipien — beginnend mit Mahat und den übrigen, den Entfaltungen der guṇa — entstehen durch die wechselseitige Verbindung von Prakṛti und Puruṣa. Weil jedes dem anderen als Stütze (adhiṣṭhāna) dient, heißt dieses Ganze das ‘Feld’ (kṣetra); so wird sogar der Puruṣa innerhalb dieses Rahmens der fünfundzwanzig Prinzipien als kṣetra bezeichnet.“
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Cosmic manifestation (from Mahat onward) is explained as arising from the association of Prakṛti (material nature) and Puruṣa (conscious witness). Because experience depends on their mutual grounding, the tradition can speak of the whole complex as ‘kṣetra’ (field), even extending the term to Puruṣa in this Sāṅkhya-style, twenty-five-principle account.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, Vasiṣṭha is instructing on philosophical analysis of reality—how the constituents of the world arise and how the ‘field’ of experience is defined—using Sāṅkhya categories to clarify the relation between nature (Prakṛti) and consciousness (Puruṣa).