Shloka 27
Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara
Fever
जन्तुष्वेकतमेष्वेवं भावा ये विधिमास्थिता: । भावयोरीप्तितं नित्यं प्रत्यक्ष गमनं तयो:,इनसे भिन्न राजस और तामस--प्राणियोंमेंसे जिस किसी एक श्रेणीके जीवोंमें जो-जो भाव (वासनाएँ), विधि (कर्मगति) का आश्रय लेकर स्थित हैं, उन्हीं भावोंको उनकी स्मृति ग्रहण करती है। अर्थात् जाग्रत् और स्वप्न--दोनों ही अवस्थाओंमें उन मनुष्योंको अपनी- अपनी रुचिके अनुसार राजस और तामस पदार्थोका सदा प्रत्यक्ष दर्शन होता है
jantuṣv ekatameṣv evaṁ bhāvā ye vidhim āsthitāḥ | bhāvayor īpsitaṁ nityaṁ pratyakṣa-gamanaṁ tayoḥ ||
Asita said: Among living beings, whatever latent dispositions (bhāvas) have taken their stand upon “vidhi”—the determining course shaped by one’s karmic momentum—those very dispositions are continually seized and carried by memory. Therefore, in both waking and dreaming, the two sets of dispositions move toward what they desire and become directly manifest: people repeatedly encounter, in accordance with their own inclinations, the objects and experiences colored by rajas and tamas.
असित उवाच
Educational Q&A
Perception is not neutral: the mind’s stored dispositions (bhāvas), grounded in one’s karmic course (vidhi), repeatedly shape what becomes vivid and ‘direct’ in experience. Thus, in waking and dreaming alike, one tends to meet the world through the coloring of one’s dominant guṇas—especially rajas and tamas here—seeing and seeking what one already inclines toward.
In Shanti Parva’s reflective instruction, Asita explains an inner mechanism of experience: how karmically formed tendencies persist through memory and manifest as recurring perceptions and dream-contents. The passage frames ethical self-cultivation as requiring attention to one’s underlying dispositions, since they govern what one repeatedly experiences and pursues.