Shloka 29

Vidyā–Avidyā and the Twenty-Fifth Principle

Sāṃkhya–Yoga Clarification

Devanagari script

अप्रियाण्यवमानांश्व दुःखं बहुविधात्मकम्‌ । फलार्थी तत्फलं त्यक्त्वा प्राप्रोति विषयात्मकम्‌,मनके अनुकूल फलकी इच्छा रखनेवाला मनुष्य सकाम कर्मका अनुष्ठान करके अप्रिय, अपमान और नाना प्रकारके दुःख पाता है, किंतु उस फलका परित्याग करके वह सम्पूर्ण विषयोंके आत्मस्वरूप परब्रह्म परमेश्वरको प्राप्त कर लेता है

Transliteration

apriyāṇy avamānāṁś ca duḥkhaṁ bahuvidhātmakam | phalārthī tatphalaṁ tyaktvā prāpnoti viṣayātmakam ||

Translation

Parāśara said: A person who acts with desire for results encounters what is unpleasant—insults and many kinds of suffering. But when one relinquishes that very fruit of action, one attains the inner reality of all objects of experience: the Supreme Brahman, the Lord who is the Self of everything.

Word by Word

• {'apriyāṇi': 'unpleasant things

• what is disagreeable', 'avamānān': 'insults, humiliations, dishonour', 'duḥkham': 'suffering, pain', 'bahuvidhātmakam': 'of many kinds

• manifold in nature', 'phalārthī': 'one who seeks the fruit (result) (of action)', 'tat-phalam': 'that fruit/result (of action)', 'tyaktvā': 'having abandoned

• renouncing', 'prāpnoti': 'attains

• reaches', 'viṣayātmakam': 'the essence/nature of the objects (viṣayas)

Speaker

पराशर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Parāśara

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Desire for the fruits of action binds one to unpleasant outcomes—humiliation and varied suffering—whereas renouncing attachment to results (phala-tyāga) leads toward realization of the Supreme Brahman, the Self underlying all experiences.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation-oriented dharma, the sage Parāśara teaches that motivated, result-seeking action produces distress, but abandoning fixation on outcomes transforms action into a means for spiritual attainment—culminating in realization of Brahman.