Shloka 6
कामद्रुम-रूपकः तथा शरीर-पुर-रूपकः
The Desire-Tree and the Body-as-City Metaphors
अन्तरात्मनि संलीय मन:षष्ठानि मेधया । इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थाश्च॒ बहुचिन्त्यमचिन्तयन्
antarātmani saṁlīya manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhāni medhayā | indriyāṇīndriyārthāś ca bahu-cintyam acintayan | mahābhūtāni pañcaiva sarva-bhūteṣu bhūta-kṛt | akarot tāta vaiṣamyaṁ yasmin yad anupaśyati |
Vyāsa said: Having, by discerning intelligence, merged the mind together with the sixfold group (mind and the senses) into the inner Self, and no longer brooding over the many objects that invite thought, the yogin withdraws the purified mind through meditation from every direction, becoming incapable of ‘doing’—that is, free from the conceit of agency. Then his mind becomes steady, filled with supreme peace, and he attains the immortal Supreme Self. And although the five great elements alone are present in all embodied beings, the differences people perceive—this element seeming greater here, that one there—arise because the Creator of beings has apportioned those elements among creatures in greater or lesser measure according to their actions.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches inner withdrawal and non-agency: the yogin dissolves mind and senses into the inner Self, stops chasing sense-objects in thought, and through meditation becomes free from the ego of ‘I do.’ This steadiness yields supreme peace and realization of the immortal Self. It also explains perceived bodily differences as karmically conditioned variations in the proportion of the five elements allotted by the Creator.
Vyāsa is instructing about yogic attainment and the metaphysical basis of embodied diversity. He describes the yogin’s inward absorption leading to peace and immortality, then shifts to a cosmological-ethical explanation: though all bodies are made of the same five elements, their unequal manifestation is due to karmic differentiation in creation.