Shloka 50

अव्यक्त-मानस-सृष्टिवादः

Doctrine of Creation from the Unmanifest ‘Mānasa’

Devanagari script

वृत्त एष ह॒दि प्रौढो मृत्युरेष मनोभव: । क्रोधो नाम शरीरस्थो देदहिनां प्रोच्यते बुचै:

Transliteration

vṛtta eṣa hṛdi prauḍho mṛtyur eṣa manobhavaḥ | krodho nāma śarīrastho dehināṃ procyate budhaiḥ ||

Translation

The Brāhmaṇa said: Desire, born of the mind, arises within the heart and grows strong there; in truth it becomes a form of death. When it is obstructed and cannot attain its object, the wise declare that this same force, dwelling within embodied beings, is then called ‘anger’.

Word by Word

• {'vṛttaḥ': 'arisen, occurred, come to be', 'eṣaḥ': 'this (one/thing)', 'hṛdi': 'in the heart', 'prauḍhaḥ': 'grown, mature, powerful', 'mṛtyuḥ': 'death

• a death-like destroyer', 'manobhavaḥ': 'mind-born

• desire (kāma) arising from the mind', 'krodhaḥ': 'anger, wrath', 'nāma': 'by name

• called', 'śarīrasthaḥ': 'situated in the body', 'dehinām': 'of embodied beings', 'procyate': 'is said, is called', 'budhaiḥ': 'by the wise, by the learned'}

Speaker

ब्राह्मण उवाच

Characters & Entities

• ब्राह्मण (speaker)
• मनः (mind)
• हृदय (heart)
• मृत्यु (death)
• क्रोध (anger)
• देही (embodied beings)
• बुध (the wise)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Desire (kāma), arising in the mind and strengthening in the heart, is spiritually ‘death-like’ because it destroys discernment; when frustrated, it transforms into anger (krodha). The verse urges vigilance over desire before it matures and turns destructive.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instructional dialogue, a Brāhmaṇa explains the inner mechanism by which desire originates and, upon obstruction, manifests as anger—framing both as internal forces that endanger the embodied being.