Shloka 10
तथा कर्मफलैदेंही र|ज्जितस्तमसा55वृत: । विवर्णों वर्णमश्रित्य देहेषु परिवर्तते,जैसे अन्धकारमयी वायु मैनसिलके लाल-पीले चूर्णमें प्रवेश करके उसीके रंगसे युक्त हो सम्पूर्ण दिशाओंको रँगती दिखायी देती है, उसी प्रकार स्वभावत: वर्णविहीन यह जीवात्मा तमोमय अज्ञानसे आवृत और कर्मफलसे रंजित हो वही वर्ण ग्रहण कर अर्थात् विभिन्न शरीरोंके धर्मोंकोी स्वीकार करके समस्त प्राणियोंके शरीरोंमें घूमता रहता है
tathā karmaphalaiḥ dehī rañjitas tamasāvṛtaḥ | vivarṇo varṇam āśritya deheṣu parivartate ||
Bhishma said: “In the same way, the embodied self—stained by the fruits of its actions and veiled by darkness (ignorance)—though itself without color, takes on ‘color’ by resorting to a particular condition, and thus keeps revolving through bodies. As a dark wind entering red and yellow powders appears to dye the directions with those very hues, so too the intrinsically colorless self, covered by tamas and tinged by karma’s results, assumes the qualities and duties of diverse bodies and wanders among the embodiments of living beings.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The self is intrinsically unqualified ("colorless"), but ignorance (tamas) veils it and karma’s results stain it, making it appear to take on particular qualities and roles; this drives its repeated movement through different bodies (saṃsāra).
Bhishma is instructing on the metaphysics of rebirth: he uses an analogy of wind darkened by contact with colored powders to explain how the jīva, though pure in itself, seems to acquire attributes through ignorance and karmic conditioning and thus cycles through embodiments.