Shloka 1
Jājali’s Austerities and the Summons to Tulādhāra (जाजलि–तुलाधार-इतिहासः)
व्यासजी कहते हैं--बेटा! मनुष्यकी हृदयभूमिमें मोहरूपी बीजसे उत्पन्न हुआ एक विचित्र वृक्ष है, जिसका नाम है काम। क्रोध और अभिमान उसके महान् स्कन्ध हैं। कुछ करनेकी इच्छा उसमें जल सींचनेका पात्र है। अज्ञान उसकी जड़ है। प्रमाद ही उसे सींचनेवाला जल है। दूसरोंके दोष देखना उस वृक्षका पत्ता है तथा पूर्व जन्ममें किये हुए पाप उसके सारभाग हैं
vyāsa uvāca—vatsa! manuṣyasya hṛdayabhūmau mohākhya-bījāt utpannaḥ ekaḥ vicitraḥ vṛkṣaḥ asti, yasya nāma kāmaḥ. krodhaś ca abhimānaś ca tasya mahā-skandhau. kartum icchā tasmin jala-siñcana-pātram iva. ajñānaṃ tasya mūlam. pramāda eva tasya siñcanīyaṃ jalam. pareṣāṃ doṣa-darśanaṃ tasya pattram, pūrva-janmani kṛta-pāpāni ca tasya sāra-bhāgāḥ.
Vyāsa said: “My son, in the heart-ground of a human being there grows a strange tree, sprung from the seed called delusion; its name is Desire. Anger and pride are its great trunks. The urge to act is like the vessel by which it is watered. Ignorance is its root, and heedlessness is the water that nourishes it. Noticing the faults of others is its foliage, and the sins committed in former births are its inner pith. Thus does desire take firm hold and spread within a person.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Desire (kāma) is portrayed as an inner tree rooted in ignorance and sprouting from delusion; it is strengthened by heedlessness, supported by anger and pride, and spreads through fault-finding and karmic residues. Ethical progress requires cutting this growth at its root—through vigilance, knowledge, and restraint.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, Vyāsa addresses his listener affectionately and delivers a moral-psychological allegory: he maps common mental afflictions onto parts of a tree to show how desire arises, is nourished, and becomes entrenched in the human heart.