Shloka 5
भूमेरपि गुणं गन्धमाप आददते यदा । आत्तगन्धा तदा भूमि: प्रलयत्वाय कल्पते,तत्पश्चात् जब जल पृथ्वीके गुण गन्धको ग्रहण कर लेता है, तब गन्धहीन हुई पृथ्वी अपने कारणभूत जलमें लीन हो जाती है
bhūmer api guṇaṃ gandham āpa ādadate yadā | ātta-gandhā tadā bhūmiḥ pralayatvāya kalpate ||
Vyāsa explains the sequence of dissolution: when water draws to itself the earth’s distinctive quality—smell—the earth, bereft of fragrance, becomes fit for pralaya and merges back into its causal source, water.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
All compounded entities are impermanent and dissolve by a lawful process: when a thing’s defining quality is withdrawn, it can no longer sustain its separate existence and returns into its causal source—here, earth loses smell and merges into water.
Vyāsa is describing the step-by-step cosmic dissolution (pralaya) in elemental terms: water appropriates the earth-element’s specific property (gandha), and the earth-element, now without its hallmark quality, is said to dissolve back into water.