Shloka 14
जनकस्य मोक्षमार्गप्रश्नः तथा पञ्चशिखोपदेश-प्रस्तावः | Janaka’s Path to Liberation: Prelude to Pañcaśikha’s Instruction
नच तै: स्पृश्यते भावैर्न ते तेन महात्मना | सरजस्को5रजस्कश्न नैव वायुर्भवेद् यथा,जैसे धूलके उड़नेसे वायु न तो धूलसे लिप्त होती है और न अलिप्त ही रहती है। उसी प्रकार न तो उन राजस, तामस आदि भावोंसे जीवात्मा लिप्त होता है और न अलिप्त ही रहता है
na ca taiḥ spṛśyate bhāvair na te tena mahātmanā | sa-rajasko 'rajaskaś ca naiva vāyur bhaved yathā ||
Bhīṣma said: “The great Self is not touched by those states of being; nor does it become wholly defined by them. Just as the wind, though moving amid rising dust, is neither truly smeared by the dust nor can it be called absolutely untouched in a practical sense, so too the individual self is not essentially tainted by rajas, tamas, and the like—yet, in embodied life, it appears connected with them through their effects.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The Self (ātman) is intrinsically beyond the guṇas and their moods (rajas, tamas, etc.). It is not essentially stained by them, though in embodied experience it seems associated with them through their observable effects—like wind amid dust.
In Śānti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on liberation-oriented ethics and self-knowledge. Here he uses the analogy of wind and dust to clarify how the Self relates to mental qualities: appearing connected, yet not truly contaminated.