Shloka 8
Bhūta-guṇa-saṃkhyāna
Enumeration of the Properties of the Elements and Cognitive Faculties
सेयं भावात्मिका भावांस्त्रीनेतानतिवर्तते । सरितां सागरो भर्ता महावेलामिवोर्मिमान्
seyaṁ bhāvātmikā bhāvāṁs trīn etān ativartate | saritāṁ sāgaro bhartā mahāvelām ivormimān ||
Vyāsa said: This mind-intelligence, constituted of mental dispositions, transcends these three states. Just as the ocean—lord of rivers, heaving with great waves—at times oversteps even its vast shoreline, so too, when established in the yoga of restraining the mind’s movements, this disposition-based intellect passes beyond those three modes.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the disposition-formed intellect (buddhi shaped by mental states) can, when grounded in yogic restraint of mental fluctuations, transcend the three fundamental modes/states that ordinarily govern experience.
Vyāsa explains a psychological-spiritual point using a vivid simile: as the ocean sometimes surges beyond its shoreline, so the mind-intellect, when stabilized in yoga, can overstep the usual limits imposed by the three bhāvas.