Shloka 14
अध्यात्म-तत्त्व-निर्णयः
Adhyātma Taxonomy: Elements, Faculties, and Guṇas
आश्रयो नास्ति सत्त्वस्य गुणा: शब्दो न चेतना । सत्त्वं हि तेज: सृजति न गुणान् वै कथंचन
āśrayo nāsti sattvasya guṇāḥ śabdo na cetanā | sattvaṃ hi tejaḥ sṛjati na guṇān vai kathaṃcana ||
Vyāsa said: Sattva (the principle of intelligence) has no external support or substratum in itself. Nor are the guṇas, sound, or consciousness its support. For sattva gives rise to tejas (luminous energy), yet it does not in any way produce the guṇas. The intent is to distinguish the intellect’s role as a proximate cause for certain manifestations (like illumination/clarity) while denying that it is the ultimate ground of Prakṛti’s tri-guṇa constitution; rather, intellect itself is treated as an effect within the chain of causation.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse argues that sattva/buddhi should not be treated as the ultimate substratum of reality: it can be a cause for certain manifestations (like tejas/illumination), but it is not the source of the guṇas themselves. This supports a layered causality where intellect is not the first principle but part of Prakṛti’s evolutes, while the guṇas remain fundamental to Prakṛti.
In the didactic setting of Śānti Parva, Vyāsa is presenting a philosophical clarification—using Sāṅkhya-like categories—to disentangle what depends on what: body and sensory phenomena are not the ground of intellect, and intellect is not the ground of the guṇas. The passage advances the larger instruction on liberation through correct discrimination of principles.