Shloka 13
Adhyāya 42 — Mahābhūta–Indriya–Adhyātma-Vyavasthā
Brahmā’s Instruction on Elements and Faculties
श्रोत्रं त्वक् चक्षुषी जिह्नवा नासिका चैव पठचमी । पादौ पायुरुपस्थश्व हस्तौ वागू दशमी भवेत्
śrotraṁ tvak cakṣuṣī jihvā nāsikā caiva pañcamī | pādau pāyur upasthaś ca hastau vāk ca daśamī bhavet | manas tv ekādaśaṁ proktaṁ pūrvaṁ jayet tu tat-samūham | tataḥ sa brahmaṇaḥ sākṣātkāraṁ labhate naraḥ ||
Vāyudeva said: “Hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell—these are the five sense-faculties. The hands, feet, anus, genitals, and speech make the five faculties of action—thus forming a set of ten. Mind is declared the eleventh. A person should first conquer this whole group; only then does one attain direct realization of Brahman.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
Mastery over the senses and organs of action—together with the mind that coordinates them—is presented as the necessary preliminary discipline; when this inner group is conquered, one becomes fit for direct realization of Brahman.
Vāyudeva instructs the listener by enumerating the faculties that bind a person to outward experience (five senses, five action-organs, and the mind) and states a spiritual sequence: first self-conquest, then Brahman-realization.