Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 22
अव्यक्त-मानस-सृष्टिवादः
Doctrine of Creation from the Unmanifest ‘Mānasa’
जीवितं च शरीरेण जात्यैव सह जायते । उभे सह विवर्तेते उभे सह विनश्यत:,यह जीवन स्वभावत: शरीरके साथ ही उत्पन्न होता है। दोनों साथ-साथ विविध रूपोंमें रहते हैं और साथ ही साथ नष्ट हो जाते हैं
jīvitaṃ ca śarīreṇa jātyaiva saha jāyate | ubhe saha vivartete ubhe saha vinaśyataḥ ||
Life, together with the body, is born at the very moment of birth. Both undergo change side by side, taking on varied conditions, and both perish together.
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that embodied life and the body arise together at birth, change together through various states, and end together; therefore one should recognize the impermanence of embodied existence and cultivate ethical detachment from what is inevitably transient.
In a didactic exchange within the Śānti Parva, a Brāhmaṇa speaker presents a philosophical point about the nature of life and the body, using their joint birth, transformation, and destruction to frame a reflective, moral perspective on human existence.