Shloka 7
कर्मविद्या-भेदः
Karma–Vidyā Distinction: Paths of Bondage and Release
अपामपि गुणं॑ तात ज्योतिराददते यदा | आपस्तदा त्वात्तगुणा ज्योति:षूपरमन्ति वै,वत्स! तदनन्तर तेज जलके गुण रसको ग्रहण कर लेता है और रसहीन जल तेजमें लीन हो जाता है
apām api guṇaṃ tāta jyotir ādadate yadā | āpas tadā tvāttaguṇā jyotiḥṣu uparamanti vai, vatsa |
Vyāsa said: “Dear child, when fire takes up even the quality of water, then the waters—having had their quality taken away—indeed come to rest, absorbed into the fires, O son.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a model of dissolution and dependence: when a dominant principle (here, fire/light) takes over the defining quality (guṇa) of another (water), the latter—deprived of its own defining attribute—loses separate status and is said to merge into the former. It supports a broader ethical-philosophical point in Śānti Parva about understanding constituents of reality and cultivating detachment from what is transient and derivative.
Vyāsa addresses a disciple/son affectionately (“tāta”, “vatsa”) and explains, through elemental imagery, how one element can absorb another during processes of transformation or dissolution: fire takes the ‘quality’ of water, and water, having lost that quality, subsides into fire.