Shloka 24
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
अहमेव हि सम्मोहादन्यमन्यं जनाज्जनम् | मत्स्यो यथोदकज्ञानादनुवर्तितवानहम्,“जैसे मत्स्य पानीको ही अपने जीवनका मूल समझकर एक जलाशयसे दूसरे जलाशयको जाता है, उसी तरह मैं भी मोहवश एक शरीरसे दूसरे शरीरमें भटकता रहा
ahameva hi sammohād anyam anyaṃ janāj janam | matsyo yathodakajñānād anuvartitavān aham ||
Vasiṣṭha sprach: „Wahrlich, ich selbst war es, der aus Verblendung Geburt um Geburt nachlief, von Mensch zu Mensch wandernd. Wie ein Fisch, der das Wasser allein für den Grund seines Lebens hält, von einem Teich zum anderen zieht, so irrte auch ich, benommen, von einem Körper zum nächsten.“
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Delusion (moha) makes the self cling to embodied life as if it were the only support—like a fish that knows only water—thereby perpetuating saṃsāra, the repeated movement from one body/birth to another. The implied remedy is discernment and detachment leading toward self-knowledge and liberation.
Vasiṣṭha speaks introspectively, confessing his own former wandering under delusion. He illustrates the condition of transmigration with a vivid simile: a fish moving from one pond to another, assuming water to be its entire life-ground, just as an ignorant being moves from body to body taking embodied existence as ultimate.