Shloka 14
यथात्मनो>ऊूुं पतितं पृथिव्यां स्वप्रान्तरे पश्यति चात्मनो<न्यत् | श्रोत्रादियुक्त: सुमना: सुबुद्धि- लिंज्ात्तथा गच्छति लिड्रमन्यत्,जैसे स्वप्नमें मनुष्य अपने शरीरके कटे हुए अंगको अपनेसे अलग और पृथ्वीपर पड़ा देखता है, उसी प्रकार दस इन्द्रिय, पाँच प्राण तथा मन और बुद्धि--इन सत्रह तत्त्वोंके समुदायका अभिमानी शुद्ध मन और बुद्धिवाला मनुष्य शरीरको अपनेसे पृथक् जाने। जो ऐसा नहीं जानता, वही एक शरीरसे दूसरे शरीरमें जन्म लेता रहता है
yathātmanaḥ patitaṃ pṛthivyāṃ svapnāntare paśyati cātmano 'nyat | śrotrādiyuktaḥ sumanāḥ subuddhir liṅgāt tathā gacchati liṅgam anyat ||
Bhishma said: “Just as, in a dream, a person sees a severed limb of his own body lying on the ground as something separate from himself, so too the clear-minded and well-intentioned man—endowed with the faculties beginning with hearing—should understand the body to be distinct from the Self. Failing to know this, one continues to pass from one embodied state to another.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches discernment between the self (ātman) and the body: the body can be seen as ‘other’ to the self, like a dream-image of one’s own limb lying apart. Without this discriminative knowledge, one remains bound to transmigration (moving from one embodiment to another).
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and liberation-oriented wisdom. Here he uses a dream analogy to explain how a disciplined, discerning person should regard the body as separate from the self, contrasting this with the ignorance that perpetuates rebirth.