Shloka 16
कामद्रुम-रूपकः तथा शरीर-पुर-रूपकः
The Desire-Tree and the Body-as-City Metaphors
स््नातकानामिदं शास्त्र वाच्यं पुत्रानुशासनम् । तदिदं नाप्रशान्ताय नादान्तायातपस्विने
vyāsa uvāca | snātakānām idaṃ śāstraṃ vācyaṃ putrānuśāsanam | tad idaṃ nāpraśāntāya nādāntāyātapasmine | guṇān nenīyate buddhir buddhir evendriyāṇy api | manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhāni sarvāṇi buddhy-abhāve kuto guṇāḥ ||
Vyāsa said: This teaching—an instruction meant for one’s sons—should be imparted to those who have completed their disciplined student-life and live by vows. This doctrine of liberation is not to be taught to one whose mind is not tranquil, whose senses are not restrained, and who is not devoted to austerity. For it is by the intellect that one is led toward virtues, and it is the intellect that governs the senses as well. Since the mind and the other faculties (making six in all) depend upon the presence of intellect, how could virtues arise where true discernment is absent?
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation-teaching should be given only to a qualified, disciplined recipient: one who is calm, self-restrained, and committed to tapas. Virtue and self-mastery depend on buddhi (discernment); without it, the mind and senses cannot be rightly governed, and ethical qualities do not take root.
In the Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Vyāsa lays down a rule of transmission: this ‘instruction to a son’—a mokṣa-oriented doctrine—is to be taught selectively. He justifies this by explaining the inner hierarchy: buddhi guides virtues and regulates the senses; without discernment, the mental-sensory complex cannot sustain dharmic qualities.