Shloka 15
Varāha-avatāra: Viṣṇu’s subterranean intervention and the cosmic nāda (Śānti-parva 202)
उत्पत्तिवृद्धिव्ययसंनिपातै- न युज्यतेडसौ परम: शरीरी । अनेन लिड्जेन तु लिड्रमन्यद् गच्छत्यदृष्ट: फलसंनियोगात्,आत्मा शरीरसे सर्वथा भिन्न है। वह इसके उत्पत्ति, वृद्धि, क्षय और मृत्यु आदि दोषोंसे कभी लिप्त नहीं होता। किंतु अज्ञानी मनुष्य पूर्वकृत कर्मोके फलके सम्बन्धसे इस ऊपर बताये हुए सूक्ष्म शरीरके सहित दूसरे शरीरमें चला जाता है
utpatti-vṛddhi-vyaya-sannipātaiḥ na yujyate ’sau paramaḥ śarīrī | anena liṅgena tu liṅgam anyad gacchaty adṛṣṭaḥ phala-sanniyogāt ||
Bhīṣma said: The supreme embodied Self is not connected with the conditions of birth, growth, decay, or death. Yet the unseen individual, bound to the subtle body, passes on to another embodiment due to the linkage of results produced by previously performed actions.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The highest Self (ātman) is intrinsically untouched by bodily states—birth, growth, decay, and death. Transmigration happens not to the pure Self as such, but to the individual under ignorance, carried along with the subtle body and propelled by the causal linkage of karma and its fruits.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction, Bhīṣma continues his philosophical teaching to Yudhiṣṭhira, explaining how the Self differs from the body and why beings take new bodies: due to ignorance and the binding force of past actions’ results.