Shloka 33
अध्यात्म-तत्त्व-निर्णयः
Adhyātma Taxonomy: Elements, Faculties, and Guṇas
हानिभड़विकल्पानां नवानां संचयेन च | शरीराणामजस्याहु्सत्वं पारदर्शिन:
hāni-bhaṅga-vikalpānāṁ navānāṁ sañcayena ca | śarīrāṇām ajasyāhuḥ sattvaṁ pāradarśinaḥ ||
Vyāsa said: The seers who truly perceive reality declare that, because the unborn Self repeatedly accumulates ever-new bodies—each subject to loss, breakage, and alteration—its essential nature is spoken of as the “Haṁsa,” the pure inner principle that passes through changing embodiments without itself being born.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the perishable body—marked by loss, dissolution, and continual modification—with the unborn inner principle. Because the inner Self repeatedly associates with new bodies in saṁsāra, the wise describe its essential purity as ‘haṁsa’, pointing to a reality that remains unstained amid changing embodiments.
In Śānti Parva’s reflective instruction, Vyāsa articulates a philosophical explanation of embodiment and rebirth. He reports the view of pāradarśin (truth-seeing) sages: bodies are repeatedly taken up and discarded, while the unborn Self’s true nature is identified through the symbolic term ‘haṁsa’.